THE 

HISTORY 

OF  NATIONS 


TURKEY 


§ 


BILAL,  THE  BLACK  ABYSSINIAN,  THE  FIRST  OF  ALL 
MUEZZINS,  CHANTS  THE  ADZAN  (CALL  TO 
PRAYER)  FROM  THE  TOP  OF  A  MINARET: 

"  Ashadnan  na  Mahomet  Rasoul  Allah! 

Bis  mill  ah 

Allah-hu-akhar!  " 

"God  is  Great/ 

God  is  Great/ 

I  bear  witness  there  is  no  other  God  but  God/ 

I  bear  witness  that  Mahomet  is  the  Prophet  of  God! 

Come  to  prayer/ 

Come  to  prayer/ 

Come  unto  Salvation! 

God  is  Great/ 

God  is  Great! 

There  is  no  other  God  but  God." 

Painting  by  J.  L.  Gerome. 


-.^i-   '^ 


.  A\n 


THE  HISTORY  OF  NATIONS 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE  ,Ph.n,LL.D.,EDITOR-INK:HIEr 

TURKEY 

by 

SIR  EDWARD  S.  CREASY 

Revised  and  Edited  by 

ARCHIBALD  CARYCOOLIDGE.PhJ) 

Assistant  Professor  of  History 

H  ar  V  ard  University 

and 

W.HAROLD  CLArUNMA. 

Department  of  History 
H  ar  vard  University 

Volume  XIV 


Illustrated 


The  H  .W.  Snow  and  Son  Company 

Chi    r    'a    <.1    o 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
JOHX  D.  MORRIS  &  COMPANY 

Copyright,  1910 
THE  H.  W.  SXOW  &  SOX  COMPAXY 


THE   HISTORY   OF  NATIONS 

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF 

HENRY  CABOT  LODGE,  PL.D.,  L.L.D. 

Associate  Editors  and  Authors 


ARCHIBALD  HENRY  SAYCE,  LL.D., 

Professor     of    Assyriology,     Oxford     Uni- 
versity 


SIR  ROBERT  K.  DOUGLAS. 

Professor  of  Chinese,  King's  College,  Lon- 
don 


CHRISTOPHER  JOHNSTON,  M.D.,  Ph.D., 

Associate  Professor  of  Oriental  History  and 
Archaeology,  Johns   Hopkins  University 


C.  W.  C.  OMAN,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  History,  Oxford  University 


THEODOR  MOMMSEN. 

Late   Professor  of   Ancient    History,    Uni- 
versity of  Berlin 


ARTHUR  C.  HOWLAND,  Ph.D., 

Department  of  History,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania 


JEREMIAH  WHIPPLE  JENKS,  Ph.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor   of   Political   Economy   and    Pol- 
itics, Cornell  University 


KANICHI  ASAKAWA,  Ph.D., 

Instructor    in    the    History    of    Japanese 
Civilization,  Yale  University 


WILFRED  HAROLD  MUNRO,  Ph.D., 

Professor    of    European    History,    Browp 
University 


G.  MERCER  ADAM, 

Historian  and  Editor 


FRED  MORROW  FLING,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  European  History,  University 
of  Nebraska 


CHARLES  MERIVALE.  LL.D., 

Late   Dean   of   Ely.    formerly   Lecturer  in        FRANCOIS  AUGUSTE  MARIE  MIGNET, 


History,  Cambridge  University 


Late  Member  of  the  French  Academy 


J.  HIGGINSON  CABOT,  Ph.D., 

Department  of    History,  Wellesley  College 


JAMES  WESTFALL  THOMPSON,  Ph.D., 

Denartment     of     History,     University     of 
Chicago 


SIR  WILLIAM  W.  HUNTER,  F.R.S., 

Late  Director-General  of  Statistics  in  India 


SAMUEL  RAWSON  GARDINER,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Modern  History,   King's  Col- 
lege, London 


GEORGE  M.  DUTCHER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  ot   History,  Wesleyan   University 


R.  W.  JOYCE,  LL.D., 

Commissioner   for   the    Publication   of   thej 
Ancient  Laws  of  Ireland 


ASSOCIATE  EDITORS  AND   AUTHORS-Continu^d 


JUSTIN  McCarthy,  ll.d.. 

Author  and  Historian 


AUGUSTUS  HUNT  SHEARER.  Ph.D.. 

Instructor    in     History,     Trinity    College 
Hartford 


W.  HAROLD  CLAFLIN,  B.A.. 

Department    of    History,     Harvard    Uni- 
versity 


PAUL  LOUIS  LEGER. 

Professor  of  the  Slav  Languages,  C<511ege 
de  France 


WILLIAM  E.  LINGLEBACH,  Ph.D.. 

Assistant  Professor  of  European  History, 
University  of  Pennsylvania 


BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Former  United  States  Minister  to  Germany 


CHARLES  DANDLIKER.  LL.D., 

President  of  Zurich  University 


SIDNEY  B.  FAY.  Ph.D., 

Professor  of  History,    Dartmouth   College 


ELBERT  JAY  BENTON,  Ph.D.. 

Department  of  History,  Western  Reserve 
University 


SIR  EDWARD  S.  CREASY, 

Late  Professor  of  History,  University  Col- 
lege, London 


ARCHIBALD  CARY  COOLIDGE,  Ph.D., 

Assistant    Professor    of    History,    Harva/-d 
University 

WILLIAM  RICHARD  MORFILL,  M.A.. 

Professor  of   Russian   and   other  Slavonic 
Languages,  Oxford  University 

CHARLES  EDMUND  FRYER,  Ph.D., 

Department  of  History,  McGill  University 

E.  C.  OTTE, 

Specialist  on  Scandinavian  History 


J.  SCOTT  KELTIE,  LL.D., 

President  Royal  Geographical  Society 


ALBERT  GALLOWAY  KELLER,  Ph.D., 

Assistant  Professor  of  the  Science  of  So- 
ciety, Yale  University 


EDWARD  JAMES  PAYNE,  M.A.. 

Fellow  of  University  College,  Oxford 

PHILIP  PATTERSON  WELLS,  Ph.D., 

Lecturer  in  History  and  Librarian  of  the 
Law  School,  Yale  University 


FREDERICK  ALBION  OBER, 

Historian,  Author  and  Traveler 


JAMES  WILFORD  GARNER,  Ph.D., 

Professor  of   Political   Science,   University 
of  Illinois 


EDWARD  S.  CORWIN,  Ph.D., 

Instructor     in     History,     Princeton     Uni- 
versity 


JOHN  BACH  McMASTER,  Litt.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  History,  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania 


JAMES  LAMONT  PERKINS,   Managing  Editor 


The  editors  and  publishers  desire  to  express  their  appreciation  for  valuable 
advice  and  suggestions  received  from  the  following:  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White, 
LL.D.,  Alfred  Thayer  Mahan,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Hon.  Charles  Emory  Smith, 
LL.D.,  Professor  Edward  Gaylord  Bourne,  Ph.D.,  Charles  F.  Thwing, 
LL.D.,  Dr.  Emil  Reich,  William  Elliot  Griffis,  LL.D.,  Professor  John 
Martin  Vincent,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Melvil  Dewey,  LL.D.,  Alston  Ellis,  LL.D., 
Professor  Charles  H.  McCarthy,  Ph.D.,  Professor  Herman  V.  Ames,  Ph.D., 
Professor  Walter  L.  Fleming,  Ph.D.,  Professor  David  Y.  Thomas,  Ph.D., 
Mr.  Otto  Reich  and  Mr.  O.  M.  Dickerson. 

vii 


PREFACE 

The  "  History  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,"  by  Sir  Edward  Creasy, 
the  well-known  author  of  "  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World," 
has  long  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  few  good  works 
in  English  which  deals  with  Turkish  affairs.  As  it  appeared  at  the 
time  of  the  Crimean  War,  its  writer  had  not  the  advantage  of  being 
able  to  profit  by  a  good  many  important  authorities  on  his  subject 
who  have  written  during  the  last  half  century.  Nevertheless  his 
mistakes  are  few,  and  though,  as  regards  Russia,  his  tone  was  influ- 
enced by  the  excitement  of  the  events  taking  place  when  he  wrote, 
in  a  new  revision  of  his  work  it  has  been  possible  to  remedy  this  to 
a  certain  extent  by  omitting  a  few  superfluous  phrases  which  be- 
tray a  little  too  much  the  passion  of  the  moment.  Otherwise  in  this 
edition  the  spirit  of  Sir  Edward  Creasy  has  been  scrupulously  re- 
spected. His  foot-notes,  which  were  largely  bibliographical,  have 
for  the  most  part  been  suppressed,  and  a  number  of  redundant 
passages  and  unimportant  details  have  been  left  out,  but  the  wording 
remains  his  own.  Mr.  W.  Harold  Claflin  of  Harvard  University 
has  in  three  supplementary  chapters  brought  down  the  story  of  the 
Near  East  to  the  present  time.  And  yet  the  precise  point  where  he 
stops  is  only  accidental,  for  the  situation  remains  as  unsettled  as 
ever.  Any  day  may  bring  us  the  beginning  of  a  new  chapter  in  the 
struggle  between  Cross  and  Crescent  which  has  lasted  with  so  little 
intennission  since  long  before  the  Turks  first  set  foot  on  European 
soil. 

Harvard  University 


CONTENTS 

PART   I 

THE   RISE   OF   THE   OTTOMAN   EMPIRE.    1250-1520 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.  The  Eastern  Question 3 

11.  The  Rise  of  the  Ottomans.    1250-1326        .         .  9 

III.  The  Ottomans  Enter  Europe.    1326-1359       .         .  19 

IV.  Conquests  in  Europe  and  Asia.    1359-1402     .         .  29 
V.  The  Struggle  for  the  Balkan,    i 402-1451     .         .  52 

VI.  Mohammed  II.  and  the  Conquest  of  Constanti- 
nople.    1451-1481 71 

VII.  Political   Institutions   and  Government   under 

Mohammed  II 88 

VIII.  Bayezid  II.  AND  Prince  Djem.    1481-1512       .         .   107 
IX.  Selim  I.  and  the  Conquest  of  Egypt  and  Syria 

1512-1520 .119 

PART   II 

CULMINATION    OF    POWER    UNDER    SULEIMAN    AND 
THE   BEGINNING   OF    DECLINE.     1520-1699 

X.  First  Years  of  the  Epoch  of  Suleiman  the  Great 

1520-1533 143 

XI.  Last  Years  of  the  Epoch  of  Suleiman  the  Great 

1533-1566 158 

XII.  Selim  II.  and  the  Beginnings  of  Decline.     1566- 

1574 191 

XIII.  Decay  of  the  Empire.     1574-1623         .  .  .  201 

XIV.  Revival  of  the  Empire  Under  Murad  IV.     1623- 

1640  ........  215 

XV.  The  Age  of  the  Great  Viziers.    1640-1677     .         .  225 

XVI.  Kara  Mustapha  and  the  Siege  of  Vienna.     1685  247 

XVII.  The  War  of  the  Holy  Alliance.     1687-1699         .  255 


xii  CONTENTS 

PART   III 
DECLINE  OF  THE   OTTOMAN   EMPIRE.    1703-1792 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVIII.  Peter  the  Great  and  Turkey.    1703-1730       .         .  273 
XIX.  Mahmud  I.  AND  Wars  with  Russia,  Austria,  and 

Persia.    1730- 1763 295 

XX.  Catherine  II.  of  Russia  and  Loss  of  the  Crimea 

1763-1774 320 

XXI.  Renewal  of  the  Struggle  with  Russia.    1774-1792  342 
XXII.  The  Ottoman  Empire  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  364 

PART   IV 
MODERN   TURKEY.    1792-1910 

XXIII.  Turkey  in  the  Age  of  Revolution.    1792-1812         .  ^yy 

XXIV.  Mahmud  II.  and  the  Birth  of  Modern  Turkey   408 
XXV.  Abdul  Medjid  and  the  Crimean  War.     1839-1856 

1808-1839 439 

XXVI.  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz  and  Turkish  Efforts  at  Re- 
form.    1861-1878      ......  462 

XXVII.  Abdul  Hamid  and  the  Empire  To-Day.    1878-1910  489 

Bibliography         ,         .         .         .         .         .        .         .        .511 

Index  .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         -Si? 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BiBAL  Chants  the  Adzan  from  the  Top  of  a  Minaret 
{Photo  gramire)         ...... 


Frontispiece 

FAaNG   PAGE 

The  Death  of  Suleiman      .         .         .         .         .         .         -52 

Entry  of  Mohammed  II  into  Constantinople       .         .         .80 
DjEM  IN  Rome       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .112 

Interior  of  Saint  Sophia 138 

Don  John  of  Austria  ........   196 

John  Sobieski  Raises  the  Siege  of  Vienna  ....  250 

The  Ambassador  of  Frederick   II     and  the  Grand  Vizier 
Raghib  Pasha         ........  318 

The  Last  Charge  at  Missolonghi         .....  416 

The  Plenipotentiaries  at  Berlin.     1878      ....  486 


TEXT  MAPS 


Southeastern  Europe  at  the  Time  of  the  Entrance  of  the 
Ottomans        .........     26 

Constantinople  and  the  Bosphorus       .         .         .  .         .87 

Ottoman  Dominions  at  the  Time  of  the  Greatest  Extent  160 
Austria  and  Turkey  after  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz         .  291 
The  Caucasian  Provinces     .......  363 

The  Peninsula  of  the  Crimea     ......  456 

Turkey's  Losses  in  Europe.     17TH  to  19TH  Centuries        .  509 


PART  I 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  OTTOMAN  EMPIRE 
1250-1520 


HISTORY  OF  TURKEY 

Chapter  I 

THE    EASTERN    QUESTION 

THE  Eastern  Question  is  as  old  as  history.  Herodotus  opens 
the  first  chapter  of  his  famous  work  with  an  account  of  the 
successive  carrying  away  of  lo,  of  Europa,  of  Medea,  and 
of  Helen,  that  is  to  say,  of  the  mutual  raids  of  Asiatics  and  Greeks 
culminating  in  the  Trojan  war.  That  war  itself  he  evidently 
regards  as  being  the  prologue  to  the  drama  of  the  great  conflict 
between  Hellenes  and  barbarians  which  had  taken  place  in  his  own 
day.  With  an  extraordinary  approach  to  modern  methods  he  thus 
strives  to  trace  back  to  its  legendary  origins  this  antagonism  between 
two  continents  of  which  he  had  just  witnessed  such  an  overpowering 
manifestation.  After  his  time  the  struggle  went  on  as  before,  for 
though  after  the  rout  of  the  Persians  at  Platea  and  of  the  Cartha- 
ginians at  Himera  the  danger  passed  away,  the  offense  was  not 
forgotten.  One  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  the  expedition  pro- 
posed by  Philip  of  JMacedon  at  the  Congress  of  Corinth,  and  carried 
out  by  his  son  Alexander,  was  officially  undertaken  as  a  war  of 
revenge  for  the  attacks  of  Darius  and  Xerxes  upon  Hellas. 

With  the  conquest  of  Western  Asia  by  Alexander  the  Great 
Europe  took  the  offensive  in  her  turn  and  asserted  the  superiority  of 
her  arms  and  her  civilization  far  to  the  eastward.  Persia  proper  was 
indeed  soon  lost  again,  but  Western  Asia  was  maintained.  Subse- 
quently, when  the  power  of  the  successors  of  Alexander  had  decayed, 
their  place  was  taken  by  Rome,  which  checked  the  reaction  attempted 
by  Mithridates  and  pushed  her  boundaries  toward  the  east,  until  she 
was  finally  brought  to  a  standstill  by  the  Parthians.  Syria  and 
Egypt  therefore  remained  under  European  political  domination,  as 
well  as  under  the  influence  of  the  culture  of  Greece  and  Rome,  for 
nearly  a  thousand  years ;  and  even  after  they  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  conquering  Arab,  Asia  Minor  still  continued,  for  an- 
other four  hundred  years,  to  be,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  an 
integral  portion  of  Europe. 

Toward  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century  after  Christ,  Asia 


4  TURKEY 

reassumed  the  offensive,  and  on  her  own  gigantic  scale.  In  the 
north  the  Huns,  after  making  their  way  across  the  endless  plains 
and  sweeping  all  before  them,  for  a  space  under  Attila  menaced 
the  very  existence  of  Western  civilization.  The  combined  efforts 
of  Roman  and  German  at  the  battle  of  Chalons  barely  sufficed 
to  save  Christendom  from  their  yoke.  It  is  true  that  after  the 
death  of  the  mighty  sovereign  the  empire  of  the  Huns  crumbled 
to  pieces  till  they  vanished  from  the  scene  almost  as  suddenly 
as  they  had  appeared,  but  their  places  were  taken  by  fresh  hordes, 
Avars,  Pechenegs,  Kumans,  and  many  more.  The  last  and  most 
appalling  wave  of  these  nomad  invaders  was  the  Tartar  host  in 
the  thirteenth  century  which,  while  it  only  terrified  the  more 
distant  western  countries,  laid  waste  Poland  and  Hungary  and 
reduced  Russia  to  slavery.  To  this  day  the  Russians  have  not 
fully  recovered  from  the  effects  of  this  perhaps  the  worst  disaster 
that  has  befallen  any  great  European  people.  Farther  southward  in 
the  old  battleground  of  former  conflicts,  a  new  vigorous  Asia,  in- 
flamed with  the  ardor  of  a  militant  faith,  revealed  itself  to  the  world 
in  the  shape  of  the  Arab  followers  of  Mohammed.  Syria,  Egypt, 
North  Africa,  and  Spain,  as  well  as  Persia  and  Turkestan  to  the 
eastward,  were  overrun  with  such  speed  that  in  the  lifetime  of  men 
who  had  known  the  Prophet  himself,  the  dominions  of  his  suc- 
cessors extended  from  the  Indus  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Nothing 
but  the  defense  of  Constantinople  by  Leo  the  Isaurian  against  the 
main  attack  of  the  Caliphate,  and  the  victory  of  Charles  Martel  at 
Tours  over  the  left  wing,  saved  Christian  Europe  from  becoming  a 
province  of  Islam.  The  escape  was  a  narrow  one,  and  though  Mo- 
hammedan Spain  soon  ceased  to  be  a  danger  in  the  West,  Eastern 
Christendom,  represented  by  the  Byzantine  Empire,  was  forced  for 
generations  to  keep  up  the  struggle  against  the  Arab,  and  later  the 
Turk.  Unaided  by  the  Latin  world,  it  maintained  itself  with  a 
tenacity  that  is  far  from  having  met  either  then  or  since  with  the 
recognition  which  it  deserved. 

It  was  indeed  only  after  the  strength  of  the  Greeks  had  been 
broken  by  the  Seldjuks  at  Manzikert  and  after  Asia  Minor  had  been 
overrun  by  their  ruthless  swarms,  that  the  hitherto  indifferent  West, 
now  for  its  own  reasons  and  in  pursuit  of  its  own  ideals,  suddenly 
flung  itself  against  the  Moslem  in  the  fury  of  the  crusades.  The 
expenditure  of  human  life  that  followed  was  enormous.  Host  after 
host  made  its  way  to  the  Orient,  where,  thanks  above  all  to  its  own 


THE     EASTERN    QUESTION  6 

indiscipline,  it  melted  away  from  climate  and  suffering,  from  want 
and  pestilence,  and  from  the  scimitar  of  the  infidel.  When  at  last 
the  extraordinary  movement  came  to  an  end,  after  some  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  of  misdirected  effort,  Europe  did  not  retain  one 
foot  of  the  land  which  she  had  gained  at  the  price  of  such  sacrifices. 
Nay,  more,  one  so-called  crusade  had  turned  aside  to  capture  Con- 
stantinople, thereby  dealing  to  the  power  which  had  for  ages  been 
the  bulwark  of  the  Christian  world  against  Mohammedanism  a  blow 
from  which  it  never  recovered.  It  mattered  little  that  the  Greeks 
soon  regained  possession  of  their  peerless  capital,  their  former 
vitality  was  lost  forever.  Masters  of  but  a  small  part  of  their  old 
territories,  menaced  in  Europe  from  Italy,  from  Bulgaria,  from 
Servia,  having  lost  the  trade  which  in  times  past  had  made  them 
rich,  without  the  armies  which  had  once  been  the  best  disciplined  in 
the  world,  they  were  in  no  condition  to  hold  their  own  in  Asia 
against  a  new  enemy. 

The  coming  of  the  Ottoman  Turk  may  be  regarded  as  the  last 
onslaught  that  Asia  has  made  upon  Europe.  In  its  nature  it  was 
as  formidable  as  its  predecessors,  but  it  was  less  sudden,  starting 
from  small  beginnings.  On  the  other  hand,  it  continued  longer  to 
be  an  acute  danger,  and  the  Ottoman  state  has  shown  far  more 
vitality  in  its  decline  than  is  the  wont  of  most  Eastern  empires.  Col- 
lecting the  resources  of  the  scattered  Turkish  populations  in  Asia 
Minor,  Othman  and  his  successors  renewed  the  attack  on  Christen- 
dom. Greeks,  Southern  Slavs,  Albanians,  Hungarians,  and  Western 
crusaders  were  in  turn  vanquished.  For  over  three  centuries  the 
forces  of  the  Sultan  never  lost  a  great  battle  by  land,  save  in  the 
one  case  when  they  came  into  collision  with  the  armies  of  the  re- 
nowned Tartar  conqueror  Timur.  With  this  exception  they  long 
maintained  their  reputation  for  invincibility  in  the  open  field.  Dur- 
ing the  reign  of  Suleiman  I.,  the  mightiest  of  their  princes,  they 
captured  Bagdad,  the  old  capital  of  the  caliphs,  they  established 
themselves  on  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  they  fought  the  Portuguese  in 
India.  During  the  same  period  they  laid  siege  to  Vienna  in  the  heart 
of  Europe,  and  they  extended  their  authority  along  the  north 
African  coast  almost  to  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  while  in  the  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean  they  obtained  a  naval  supremacy  which,  how- 
ever, was  shattered  in  the  next  reign  by  the  combined  efforts  of 
Spain,  Venice,  and  the  Pope  at  the  memorable  sea  fight  of  Lepanto. 
Nevertheless,  for  another  century  the  Ottoman  Empire  continued  to 


6  TURKEY 

grow,  if  slowly.  Even  though  symptoms  of  decay  were  already 
manifesting  themselves  and  the  "  magnificent  "  Sultan  was  followed 
by  a  series  of  incapable  monarchs  under  whom  palace  intrigue,  offi- 
cial corruption,  and  demoralization  of  the  army  were  allowed  to  do 
their  fatal  work  almost  unchecked,  still  it  was  not  until  the  second 
siege  of  Vienna  and  the  famous  victory  of  John  Sobieski,  of  Poland, 
in  1683  that  the  tide  of  success  finally  turned. 

Disastrous  enough  in  itself  for  the  Turks,  the  battle  of  Vienna 
was  even  more  so  in  being  the  first  of  a  long  series  of  crushing  de- 
feats which  destroyed  their  military  prestige  forever.  At  the  Peace 
of  Carlovvitz  in  1699  and  again  at  Passarowitz  in  1718  they  were 
forced  to  their  knees.  Not  only  were  they  compelled  to  make  pain- 
ful sacrifices  of  territory,  but  their  whole  situation  in  the  world  was 
now  so  completely  changed  that  it  opened  up  a  new  phase  in  the 
history  of  the  Eastern  Question.  Henceforth  the  Ottoman  Empire 
was  to  play  a  passive  rather  than  an  active  part,  to  be  the  "  sick 
man,"  gradually  stripped  of  his  possessions,  while  would-be  heirs 
loudly  disputed  over  the  inheritance  around  what  they  took  to  be  a 
death-bed.  The  Turks  have  not,  indeed,  surrendered  tamely.  They 
have  made  many  a  stubborn  fight,  cheered  occasionally  by  temporary 
successes,  but  in  the  end  one  province  after  another  has  been  lost 
to  their  foreign  enemies  or  interested  friends,  or  to  their  own 
Christian  subjects  whom  they  had  goaded  into  revolt  by  intolerable 
misrule.  Despite  their  utmost  resistance,  it  has  been  their  lot  merely 
to  furnish  the  spoil  over  which  the  others  have  quarreled.  The 
active  aggressive  factors  have  been  these  same  foreign  powers  and 
former  subjects  who,  notwithstanding  the  obstinacy  of  the  defense, 
would  ere  now  have  put  an  end  to  Ottoman  dominion  in  Europe  if 
they  could  only  have  agreed  among  themselves  about  the  succession. 
This,  however,  they  have  never  succeeded  in  doing;  in  fact,  the 
clash  of  their  rival  ambitions  has  repeatedly  provoked  the  bitterest 
animosities  between  them. 

Animosities  of  every  kind  have  in  truth  Ijeen  rife  in  all  that 
has  pertained  to  the  Eastern  Question.  In  its  later  stages  one  of 
its  noteworthy  features  has  been  the  revival  of  that  hatred  between 
Latins  and  Greeks,  Catholics  and  Orthodox,  which  goes  back  to  the 
crusades  and  earlier.  Western  Europe  had  disliked  the  Greeks 
since  the  first  active  contact  with  them  in  the  days  of  Godfrey  of 
Bouillon,  and  each  fresh  meeting  had  increased  the  friction,  until  it 
culminated  in  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Fourth  Crusade, 


THE     EASTERN     QUESTION  7 

an  injury  which  Eastern  Christendom  has  never  forgiven.  The  two 
halves  of  the  Christian  world  had  drawn  ever  farther  apart.  On 
the  one  side  were  indifference  and  contempt,  or  when  circumstances 
permitted,  actual  persecution,  on  the  other  blind  fanatical  hostility. 
Thus  the  West  looked  on  but  little  moved  while  the  East  fell  into 
Mohammedan  slavery.  By  an  extraordinary  coincidence  the  Rus- 
sians first  appeared  prominently  on  the  scene  just  at  the  time  when 
the  power  of  the  Turks  had  been  broken  by  Austria,  and  the  op- 
pressed Slavs  and  Greeks  felt  that  at  last  they  had  a  natural  pro- 
tector to  whom  they  might  turn. 

In  the  last  two  centuries  we  have,  therefore,  a  very  different 
spectacle  presented  to  us  from  that  of  the  two  preceding.  Instead 
of  threatening  the  existence  of  their  neighbors  the  Turks  have,  with 
great  effort  and  nearly  always  with  loss,  barely  succeeded  in  holding 
their  own.  Russia,  filled  with  the  vigor  of  a  young  giant,  has  ex- 
tended her  borders  to  the  fertile  South  toward  the  open  sea,  which 
nature  has  been  so  chary  of  granting  to  her.  In  faith,  as  in  ideals, 
she  is  the  heir  to  the  Byzantine  Empire,  whose  capital  appears  des- 
tined some  day  to  be  hers.  She  has  aided  to  free  millions  of  fellow 
Orthodox  from  Mohammedan  rule,  while  at  the  same  time  she  has 
used  them  for  her  own  purposes,  and  has  found  more  than  once 
that  their  aspirations  are  difficult  to  harmonize  with  her  own. 
Austria  has  alternately  cooperated  with  her  in  despoiling  the  Turk, 
or  has  jealously  opposed  her  at  every  step.  France,  England,  and, 
of  late  years,  Italy  and  Germany,  have  all  had  their  interests  to  pur- 
sue and  have  added  their  quota  to  the  endless  complication.  In  like 
manner  the  recently  freed  subject  populations,  Servians,  Bulgarians, 
Roumanians,  Greeks,  have  none  of  them,  as  yet,  realized  all  their 
hoi>es  which  conflict  with  one  another  irreconcilably;  and  of  late 
years  their  mutual  dislike  has  often  been  keener  than  their  hostility 
to  their  former  masters.  The  prophets  of  a  prompt  and  generally 
satisfactory  solution  to  all  these  difficulties  have  a  thankless  task. 

Ever  since  the  discovery  of  the  route  round  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  and  since  the  spread  of  the  Russians  across  Siberia  the  old 
Eastern  Question  has  taken  on  new  dimensions.  The  Portuguese, 
the  Dutch,  the  French,  and  above  all  the  English,  overshadowing 
and  displacing  the  others,  liave  in  turn  built  up  colonial  empires  in 
the  farther  Orient.  Great  Britain  and  Russia  ha\c  between  them 
so  nearly  encircled  what  is  left  of  independent  Asia  that  their 
rivalry  with  one  another  is  equally  keen  in  the  Near  East,  the  ]Mid- 


8  TURKEY 

die  East,  and  the  Far  East,  the  scenes  of  three  questions  which  in 
these  days  of. world  politics  are  gradually  merging  into  one,  and 
that  one  is  of  universal  importance.  Interest  may  shift  for  a  time 
from  each  of  these  scenes  to  another.  At  this  moment  it  is  centered 
on  the  efforts  of  a  rejuvenated  Asiatic  power,  which  may  be 
destined,  as  believed  by  some,  to  stay  the  movement  of  European 
expansion  of  the  last  few  centuries  and  to  head  a  mighty  reaction  of 
Asia  against  her  foreign  masters.  Still,  as  yet  the  attention  of 
statesmen  can  never  be  long  entirely  diverted  from  the  shores  of  the 
Bosphorus.  The  immediate  future  of  the  lands  that  make  up  the 
Ottoman  Empire  continues  to  present  a  problem  of  the  first  magni- 
tude, and  the  past  history  of  the  people  who  now  hold  them  will 
always  be  worth  study  for  those  who  take  an  interest  in  how  the 
world  has  become  what  we  see  it  to-day. 


Chapter   II 

THE    RISE    OF   THE    OTTOMANS.     1250-1326 

ABOUT  six  centuries  ago  a  pastoral  band  of  four  hundred 
Turkish  famihes  was  journeying  westward  from  the  upper 
k-  streams  of  the  river  Euphrates.  Their  armed  force  con- 
sisted of  four  hundred  and  forty-four  liorsemen ;  and  their  leader's 
name  was  Ertoghrul,  which  means  "  The  Right-Hearted  Man."  As 
they  traveled  through  Asia  Minor  they  came  in  sight  of  a  field  of 
battle,  on  which  two  armies  of  unequal  numbers  were  striving  for 
the  mastery.  Without  knowing  who  the  combatants  were,  The 
Right-Hearted  Man  took  instantly  the  chivalrous  resolution  to  aid 
the  weaker  party,  and  charging  desperately  and  victoriously  with 
his  warriors  upon  the  larger  host,  he  decided  the  fortune  of  the  day. 
Such,  according  to  the  Oriental  historian  Neschri,  is  the  first 
recorded  exploit  of  that  branch  of  the  Turkish  race,  which  from 
Ertoghrul's  son,  Othman/  has  been  called  the  nation  of  the  Otto- 
man Turks. 

The  little  band  of  Ertoghrul  was  a  fragment  of  a  tribe  of 
Oghuz  Turks,  which,  under  Ertoghrul's  father,  Suleiman  Shah, 
had  left  their  settlements  in  Khorassan,  and  sojourned  for  a  time 
in  Armenia.  After  a  few  years  they  left  this  country  also,  and  were 
following  the  course  of  the  Euphrates  toward  Syria,  when  their 
leader  was  accidentally  drowned  in  that  river.  The  greater  part  of 
the  tribe  then  dispersed ;  but  a  little  remnant  of  it  followed  two  of 
Suleiman's  sons,  Ertoghrul  and  Dundar,  who  determined  to  seek  a 
dwelling-place  in  Asia  Minor,  under  the  Seljukian  Turk,  Alaeddin, 
the  Sultan  of  Iconium.  It  so  happened,  that  it  was  Alaeddin  him- 
self who  commanded  the  army,  to  which  Ertoghrul  and  his  warriors 
brought  such  opportune  succor  on  the  battle-field,  whither  their 
march  in  quest  of  Alaeddin  had  casually  led  them.   The  adversaries, 

^"Osman"  is  the  real  Oriental  name  of  the  Eponymus  hero,  and  the  de- 
scendants of  his  subjects  style  themselves  "  Osmanlis."  But  the  corrupted 
forms  "  Othman  "  and  "  Ottoman "  have  become  so  fixed  in  our  language  and 
literature  that  it  would  be  pedantry  to  write  the  correct  originals. 

9 


10  TURKEY 

1250 

from  whose  superior  force  they  delivered  him,  were  a  host  of  Mon- 
gols, the  deadliest  enemies  of  the  Turkish  race.  Alaeddin,  in  grati- 
tude for  this  eminent  service,  bestow^ed  on  Ertoghrul  a  principality 
in  Asia  Minor,  near  the  frontiers  of  the  Bithynian  province  of  the 
Byzantine  emperors. 

The  rich  plains  of  Saguta  along  the  left  bank  of  the  River 
Sakaria,  and  the  higher  districts  on  the  slopes  of  the  Ermeni  Moun- 
tains, became  now  the  pasture-grounds  of  the  father  of  Othman. 
The  town  of  Saguta,  or  Ssegud,  was  his  also.  Here  he,  and  the 
shepherd-warriors  who  had  marched  with  him  from  Khorassan  and 
Ai*menia,  dwelt  as  denizens  of  the  land.  Ertoghrul's  force  of  fight- 
ing men  was  largely  recruited  by  the  best  and  bravest  of  the  old 
inhabitants,  who  became  his  subjects;  and,  still  more  advanta- 
geously, by  numerous  volunteers  of  origin  kindred  to  his  own.  The 
Turkish  race  had  been  extensively  spread  through  Lower  Asia  long 
before  the  time  of  Ertoghrul.  Quitting  their  primitive  abodes  on 
the  upper  steppes  of  the  Asiatic  continent,  tribe  after  tribe  of  that 
martial  family  of  nations  had  poured  down  upon  the  rich  lands  and 
tempting  wealth  of  the  southern  and  western  regions,  wdien  the 
power  of  the  early  Caliphs  had  decayed,  like  that  of  the  Greek  em- 
perors. One  branch  of  the  Turks,  called  the  Seljukian,  from  their 
traditionary  patriarch  Seljuk  Khan,  had  acquired  and  consolidated 
a  mighty  empire,  more  than  two  centuries  before  the  name  of  the 
Ottomans  was  heard.  The  Seljukian  Turks  were  once  masters  of 
nearly  all  Asia  Minor,  of  Syria,  of  Mesopotamia,  Armenia,  part  of 
Persia,  and  Western  Turkestan;  and  their  great  Sultans,  Toghrul 
Beg,  Alp  Arslan,  and  Melek  Shah,  are  among  the  most  renowned 
conquerors  that  stand  forth  in  Oriental  and  in  Byzantine  history. 
But,  by  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  of  the  Christian  era, 
when  Ertoghrul  appeared  on  the  battle-field  in  Asia  Minor,  the  great 
fabric  of  Seljukian  dominion  had  been  broken  up  by  the  assaults  of 
the  conquering  Mongols,  aided  by  internal  corruption  and  civil 
strife.  The  Seljukian  Sultan  Alaeddin  reigned  in  ancient  pomp  at 
Koniah,  the  old  Tconium ;  but  his  effective  supremacy  extended  over 
a  narrow  compass  compared  with  the  ample  sphere  throughout 
which  his  predecessors  had  exacted  obedience.  The  Mongols  had 
rent  away  the  southern  and  eastern  acquisitions  of  his  race.  In  the 
center  and  south  of  Asia  Minor  other  Seljukian  chiefs  ruled  various 
territories  as  independent  princes:  and  the  Greek  emperors  of  Con- 
stantinople had  recovered  a  consideraljjc  portion  of  the  old  Roman 


RISE     OF     THE     OTTOMANS  11 

1250-1288 

provinces  in  the  north  and  east  of  that  peninsula.  Amid  the  general 
tumult  of  border  warfare,  and  of  ever-recurring  peril  from  roving 
armies  of  Mongols,  which  passed  upon  Alaeddin,  the  settlement  in 
his  dominions  of  a  loyal  chieftain  and  hardy  clan,  such  as  Ertoghrul 
and  his  followers,  was  a  welcome  accession  of  strength,  especially  as 
the  new  comers  were,  like  the  Seljukian  Turks,  zealous  adherents  of 
the  faith.  The  Crescent  was  the  device  that  Alaeddin  bore  on  his 
banners;  Ertoghrul,  as  Alaeddin's  viceregent,  assumed  the  same 
standard ;  and  it  was  by  Ertoghrul's  race  that  the  Crescent  was  made 
for  centuries  the  terror  of  Christendom,  as  the  sign  of  aggressive 
Islam,  and  as  the  chosen  emblem  of  the  conquering  Ottoman  power. 

There  was  little  peace  in  Ertoghrul's  days  on  the  frontier  near 
which  he  had  obtained  his  first  grants  of  land.  Ertoghrul  had 
speedy  and  frequent  opportunities  for  augmenting  his  military  re- 
nown, and  for  gratifying  his  followers  with  the  spoils  of  success- 
ful forays  and  assaults.  The  boldest  Turkish  adventurers  flocked 
eagerly  to  the  banner  of  the  new  and  successful  chieftain  of  their 
race;  and  Alaeddin  gladly  recognized  the  value  of  his  feudatory's 
services  by  fresh  honors  and  marks  of  confidence,  and  by  increased 
donations  of  territory. 

In  a  battle  which  Ertoghrul,  as  Alaeddin's  lieutenant,  fought 
against  a  mixed  army  of  Greeks  and  Mongols,  between  Brusa  and 
Yenischeer,  he  drew  up  his  troops  so  as  to  throw  forward  upon  the 
enemy  a  cloud  of  light  cavalry,  called  Akindji,  thus  completely 
masking  the  center  of  the  main  army,  which,  as  the  post  of  honor, 
was  termed  the  Sultan's  station.  Ertoghrul  held  the  center  him- 
self, at  the  head  of  the  four  hundred  and  forty-four  horsemen,  who 
were  his  own  original  followers,  and  whose  scimetars  had  won  the 
day  for  Alaeddin,  when  they  first  charged  unconsciously  in  his 
cause.  The  system  now  adopted  by  Ertoghrul  of  wearying  the 
enemy  by  collision  with  a  mass  of  irregular  troops,  and  then  press- 
ing him  wuth  a  reserve  of  the  best  soldiers,  was  for  centuries  the 
favorite  tactic  of  his  descendants.  The  battle  in  which  he  now  em- 
ployed it  was  long  and  obstinate ;  but  in  the  end  the  Turkish  chief 
won  a  complete  victory.  Alaeddin,  on  being  informed  of  this 
achievement  of  his  gallant  and  skillful  vassal,  bestowed  on  him  the 
additional  territory  of  Eskischeer,  and  in  memory  of  the  mode  in 
which  Ertoghrul  had  arrayed  his  army,  Alaeddin  gave  to  his 
princi])ality  the  name  of  Sultan-Qini.  which  means  "Sultan's 
Front." 


1«  TURKEY 

1250-1288 

The  territory  which  received  that  name,  and  still  bears  it,  as 
one  of  the  Sanjaks,  or  minor  governments  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
is  nearly  identical  with  the  ancient  Phrygia  Epictetos.  It  was  rich 
in  pasturage,  both  in  its  alluvial  meadows  and  along  its  mountain 
slopes.  It  contained  also  many  fertile  cornlands  and  vineyards ;  and 
the  romantic  beauty  of  every  part  of  its  thickly  wooded  and  well- 
watered  highlands  still  attracts  the  traveler's  admiration. 

Besides  numerous  villages,  it  contained,  in  Ertoghrul's  time, 
the  strongholds  of  Karadjahissar,  Biledjik,  Injeni,  and  others;  and 
the  cities  or  towns  of  Eskischeer  (so  celebrated  in  the  history  of  the 
crusades  under  its  old  name  of  Doryla^um),  Seid-e-ghari,  Lefke,  and 
Siegud,  near  which  is  the  domed  tomb  of  Ertoghrul,  an  object  still 
of  the  deepest  veneration  to  frequent  pilgrims  from  all  parts  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  Many  of  the  places  that  have  been  mentioned 
were,  at  the  time  when  Alaeddin,  as  their  titular  sovereign,  made 
grant  of  them  to  Ertoghrul,  held  by  chieftains,  who  were  practically 
independent,  and  who  little  heeded  the  sovereign's  transfer  of  their 
lands  and  towns.  It  was  only  after  long  years  of  warfare  carried 
on  by  Ertoghrul  and  his  more  renowned  son,  Othman,  that  Sultan- 
(Eni  became  the  settled  possession  of  their  house. 

Othman,  or,  according  to  the  Oriental  orthography,  Osman,  is 
regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  Ottoman  Empire;  and  it  is  from 
him  that  the  Turks,  who  inhabit  it,  call  themselves  Osmanlis,  the 
only  national  appellation  which  they  recognize."  Ertoghrul  never 
professed  to  act  save  as  the  vassal  and  lieutenant  of  the  Sultan  of 
Iconium.  But  Othman,  after  the  death  of  the  last  Alaeddin  in 
1307,  waged  wars  and  accumulated  dominions  as  an  independent 
potentate.  He  had  become  chief  of  his  race  twelve  years  before,  on 
Ertoghrul's  death,  in  1288.  Othman,  at  his  succession,  was  twenty- 
four  years  of  age,  and  was  already  of  proved  skill  as  a  leader,  and 
of  tried  prowess  as  a  combatant.  His  early  fortunes  and  exploits  are 
favorite  subjects  with  the  Oriental  writers,  especially  his  love  ad- 
ventures in  wooing  and  winning  the  fair  Malkhatoon. 

The  Sheik  Edebali,  celebrated  for  his  piety  and  learning,  had 
come,  while  Othman  was  very  young,  to  Itbourouni,  a  village  near 
Eskischeer.  Otliman  used  often  to  visit  the  holy  man,  out  of  re- 
spect for  his  sanctity  and  learning;  and  the  young  prince's  visits 
became  still  more  frequent,  after  he  had  one  evening  accidentally 
f)btaincd  a  view  of  the  Sheik's  fair  daughter,  Malkhatoon,  a  name 
-  Tlu-y  consider  that  the  name  of  Turk  implies  rudeness  and  barbarism. 


RISE     OF     THE     OTTOMANS  13 

1288-1291 

which  means  "  Treasure  of  a  Woman."  Othman  confessed  his  love ; 
but  the  old  man  thought  that  the  disparity  of  station  made  a  mar- 
riage imprudent,  and  refused  his  consent.  Othman  sought  con- 
solation for  his  disappointment  in  the  society  of  his  friends  and 
neighbors,  to  whom  he  described  with  a  lover's  inspiration  the 
beauty  of  Malkhatoon.  He  discoursed  so  eloquently  on  this  theme 
to  the  young  chief  of  Eskischeer  that  the  listener  fell  in  love  with 
Malkhatoon  upon  hearsay,  and,  going  to  her  father,  demanded  her 
hand  for  himself.  Edebali  refused  him  also,  but  fearing  his 
vengeance  more  than  that  of  Othman,  the  old  man  removed  from 
the  neighborhood  of  Eskischeer  to  a  dwelling  close  to  that  of 
Ertoghrul. 

The  chief  of  Eskischeer  now  hated  Othman  as  his  rival. 
One  day  when  Othman  and  his  brother  Goundonroulp  were  at  the 
castle  of  their  neighbor,  the  lord  of  Inseni,  an  armed  force  suddenly 
appeared  at  the  gate,  led  by  the  chieftain  of  Eskischeer  and  his  ally, 
Michael  of  the  Peaked  Beard,  the  Greek  lord  of  Khirenkia,  a  forti- 
fied city  at  the  foot  of  the  Phrygian  Olympus.  They  demanded  that 
Othman  should  be  given  up  to  them ;  but  the  lord  of  Inseni  refused 
to  commit  such  a  breach  of  hospitality.  While  the  enemy  lingered 
irresolutely  round  the  castle  wall,  Othman  and  his  brother  seized  an 
advantageous  moment  for  a  sudden  sally  at  the  head  of  a  few  com- 
panions. They  chased  the  chief  of  Eskischeer  off  the  field  in  dis- 
grace, and  took  Michael  of  the  Peaked  Beard  prisoner.  The  captive 
and  the  captors  became  stanch  friends ;  and  in  after  times,  when 
Othman  reigned  as  an  independent  prince,  Michael  left  the  Christian 
for  the  Mussulman  creed  to  join  him,  and  was  thenceforth  one  of 
the  strongest  supporters  of  the  Ottoman  power. 

Othman  had  by  this  encounter  at  In?eni  triumphed  over  his 
rival,  and  acquired  a  valuable  friend ;  but  he  could  not  yet  gain  the 
maiden  of  his  heart.  For  two  more  years  the  course  of  his  true 
love  ran  through  refusal  and  anxiety,  until  at  length  old  Edebali 
was  touched  by  the  young  prince's  constancy,  and  he  interpreted  a 
dream  as  a  declaration  of  Heaven  in  favor  of  the  long-sought 
marriage. 

One  night,  when  Othman  was  resting  at  Edebali's  house  (for 
the  shelter  of  hospitality  could  never  be  denied  even  to  the  suitor 
whose  addresses  were  rejected),  the  young  prince,  after  long  and 
melancholy  musing  on  her  whom  he  loved,  composed  his  soul  in  that 
patient  resignation  to  sorrow,  which,  according  to  the  Arabs,  is  the 


14  TURKEY 

1288-1291 

key  to  all  happiness.  In  this  mood  he  fell  asleep,  and  he  dreamed  a 
dream. 

He  saw  himself  and  his  host  reposing  near  each  other.  From 
the  bosom  of  Edebali  rose  the  full  moon  (emblem  of  the  beauteous 
Malkhatoon),  and  inclining-  toward  the  bosom  of  Othman,  it  sank 
upon  it,  and  was  lost  to  sight.  Thence  sprang  forth  a  goodly  tree, 
which  grew  in  beauty  and  in  strength  ever  greater  and  greater. 
Still  did  the  embracing  verdure  of  its  boughs  and  branches  cast  an 
ampler  and  an  ampler  shade,  until  they  canopied  the  extreme  hori- 
zon of  the  three  parts  of  the  world.  Under  the  tree  stood  four 
mountains,  which  he  knew  to  be  Caucasus,  Atlas,  Taurus,  and 
Hsemus.  These  mountains  were  the  four  columns  that  seemed  to 
support  the  dome  of  the  foliage  of  the  sacred  tree,  with  which  the 
earth  was  now  pavilioned.  From  the  roots  of  the  tree  gushed  forth 
four  rivers,  the  Tigris,  the  Euphrates,  the  Danube,  and  the  Nile. 
Tall  ships  and  barks  innumerable  were  on  the  waters.  The  fields 
were  heavy  with  harvest.  The  mountain  sides  were  clothed  with 
forests.  Thence  in  exulting  and  fertilizing  abundance  sprang  foun- 
tains and  rivulets,  that  gurgled  through  thickets  of  the  cypress  and 
the  rose.  In  the  valleys  glittered  stately  cities,  with  domes  and 
cupolas,  with  pyramids  and  obelisks,  with  minarets  and  towers.  The 
Crescent  shone  on  their  summits :  from  their  galleries  sounded  the 
Muezzin's  call  to  prayer.  That  sound  was  mingled  with  the  sweet 
voices  of  a  thousand  nightingales,  and  with  the  prattling  of  count- 
less parrots  of  every  hue.  Every  kind  of  singing  bird  was  there. 
The  winged  multitude  warbled  and  flitted  round  beneath  the  fresh 
living  roof  of  the  interlacing  branches  of  the  all-overarching  tree ; 
and  every  leaf  of  that  tree  was  in  shape  like  unto  a  scimetar.  Sud- 
denly there  arose  a  mighty  wind,  and  turned  the  points  of  the 
sword-leaves  toward  the  various  cities  of  the  world,  but  especially 
toward  Constantinople.  That  city,  placed  at  the  junction  of  two 
seas  and  two  continents,  seemed  like  a  diamond  set  between  two 
sapphires  and  two  emeralds,  to  form  the  most  precious  stone  in  a 
ring  of  universal  empire.  Othman  thought  that  he  was  in  the  act 
of  placing  that  visioned  ring  on  his  finger,  when  he  awoke.  Othman 
related  this  dream  to  his  host ;  and  the  vision  seemed  to  Edebali  so 
clearly  to  presage  honor,  and  power,  and  glory,  to  the  posterity  of 
Othman  and  Malkhatoon,  that  the  old  Sheik  no  longer  opposed 
their  union. 

The  Ottoman  writers  attach  great  importance  to  this  dream  of 


RISE     OF     THE     OTTOMANS  15 

1291-1299 

the  founder  of  their  empire.  They  dwell  also  on  the  prophetic  sig- 
nificance of  his  name,  signifying  the  resistless  energy  with  which  he 
and  his  descendants  were  to  smite  the  nations  of  the  earth.  "  0th- 
man  "  means  the  "  Bone-breaker."  It  is  also  a  name  given  to  a  large 
species  of  vulture,  commonly  called  the  royal  vulture,  and  which  is, 
in  the  East,  the  emblem  of  sovereignty  and  warlike  power,  as  the 
eagle  is  with  the  nations  of  the  West. 

Othman  is  celebrated  by  the  Oriental  writers  for  his  personal 
beauty,  and  for  "  his  wondrous  length  and  strength  of  arm,"  Like 
Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  of  the  old  dynasty  of  Persian  kings,  and 
like  the  Highland  chieftain  of  whom  Wordsworth  sang,  Othman 
could  touch  his  knees  with  his  hands  when  he  stood  upright.  He 
was  unsurpassed  in  his  skill  and  graceful  carriage  as  a  horseman ; 
and  the  jet  black  color  of  his  hair,  his  beard,  and  eyebrows,  gained 
him  in  youth  the  title  of  "  Kan,"  that  is  to  say,  "  Black"  Othman. 
The  epithet  *'  Kara,"  which  we  shall  often  find  in  Turkish  history,^ 
is,  when  applied  to  a  person,  considered  to  imply  the  highest  degree 
of  manly  beauty, 

Othman's  conquests  were  soon  extended  beyond  the  limits  of 
Sultan-CEni,  partly  at  the  expense  of  rival  Turkish  chieftains,  but 
principally  by  wresting  fortess  after  fortress,  and  region  after  re- 
gion from  the  Greek  Empire.  At  the  close  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury of  our  era  the  Ottoman  headquarters  of  empire'  w-ere  ad- 
vanced as  far  northwestward  as  the  city  of  Yenischeer,  within  a 
short  march  of  the  important  Greek  cities  of  Brusa  and  Nicaea, 
which  were  now  the  special  objects  of  Turkish  ambition. 

It  would,  however,  be  unjust  to  represent  Othman  as  merely 
an  ambitious  military  adventurer,  or  to  suppose  that  his  whole 
career  was  marked  by  restless  rapacity  and  aggressive  violence 
against  the  neighboring  states.  From  1291  a.  d.  to  1298  he  was  at 
peace ;  and  the  war  that  next  followed  was,  at  its  commencement,  a 
defensive  one  on  his  part,  caused  by  the  jealous  aggressions  of  other 
Turkish  Emirs,  who  envied  his  prosperity,  and  who  were  aided  by 
some  of  the  Greek  commandants  in  the  vicinity.  Thus  roused  into 
action,  Othman  showed  that  his  power  had  been  strengthened,  not 
corrupted,  by  repose,  and  he  smote  his  enemies  in  every  direction. 
The  effect  of  his  arms  in  winning  new  subjects  to  his  sway  was  ma- 

'•' R.  ,£f.  Karadhissar,  '"' Tlie  Bhirk  Castle":  Kara-Dcni-.  '"The  Black  Sea"; 
Kara  Mustapha,  "Black  Mustapha";  Karadagh,  "Black  I^Iountain " ;  Kara- 
Su,  •■  Black  Water." 


10  TURKEY 

1299 

terially  aided  by  the  reputation  which  he  had  honorably  acquired,  as 
a  just  lawgiver  and  judge,  in  whose  dominions  Greek  and  Turk, 
Christian  and  Mohammedan  enjoyed  equal  protection  for  property 
and  person.  It  was  about  this  time,  1299  a.  d.^  that  he  coined  money 
with  his  own  effigy,  and  caused  the  public  prayers  to  be  said  in  his 
name.  These  among  the  Oriental  nations  are  regarded  as  the  dis- 
tinctive marks  of  royalty.  The  last  prince  of  the  family  of  Alaeddin, 
to  which  that  of  Othman  had  been  indebted  for  its  first  foundation 
in  Asia  Minor,  was  now  dead.  There  was  no  other  among  the 
various  Emirs  of  that  country  who  could  compete  with  Othman  for 
the  headship  of  the  whole  Turkish  population,  and  dominion  over 
the  whole  peninsula,  save  only  the  Emir  of  Caramania.  A  long  and 
fierce  struggle  between  the  Ottoman  and  Caramanian  princes  for  the 
ascendency  commenced  in  Othman's  lifetime,  and  was  protracted 
during  the  reigns  of  his  successors.  Othman  himself  had  gained 
some  advantages  over  his  Caramanian  rival ;  but  the  weak  and 
wealthy  possessions  of  the  Byzantine  emperor  in  the  northeast  of 
Asia  Minor  were  more  tempting  marks  for  his  ambition  than  the 
Caramanian  plains :  and  it  was  over  Greek  cities  and  armies  that  the 
chief  triumphs  of  the  last  twenty-six  years  of  Othman's  life  were 
achieved. 

Some  of  Othman's  counselors  hesitated  at  the  entrance  of  the 
bold  path' of  conquest  on  which  their  chief  strode  so  firmly;  but 
Othman  silenced  all  remonstrance  and  quelled  all  risk  of  dissension 
and  mutiny  by  an  act  of  prompt  ferocity,  which  shows  that  the  great 
ancestor  of  the  Ottoman  Sultans  had,  besides  the  traits  of  chivalrous 
and  noble  feelings  which  we  have  recorded,  a  full  share  of  the  ruth- 
less cruelty  that  has  been  the  dark  characteristic  of  the  Turkish 
royal  house.  Othman's  uncle,  the  aged  Dundar,  who  had  marched 
with  Ertoghrul  from  the  Euphrates,  seventy  years  before,  was  still 
alive,  when  Othman,  in  1299,  summoned  a  council  of  his  principal 
followers,  and  announced  to  them  his  intention  to  attack  the  lord  of 
the  important  Greek  fortress  of  Koeprihissar.  The  old  uncle  opposed 
the  enterprise,  and  urged  the  danger  of  provoking  by  such  ambitious 
aggrandizement  all  the  neighboring  princes,  Turkish  as  well  as 
Greek,  to  league  against  them  for  the  destruction  of  their  tribe.  En- 
raged at  the  chilling  caution  of  the  gray-haired  man,  and,  observing 
probably  that  others  were  beginning  to  share  in  it,  Othman  met  the 
arrows  of  the  tongue  by  the  arrows  of  the  bow.  He  spake  not  a 
word  in  reply,  but  he  shot  his  old  uncle  dead  upon  the  spot — a  bloody 


RISE     OF     THE     OTTOMANS  17 

1301-1326 

lesson  to  all  who  should  harbor  thoughts  of  contradiction  to  the 
fixed  will  of  so  stern  a  lord. 

Koeprihissar  was  attacked,  and  fell ;  and  numerous  other  strong- 
holds in  the  vicinity  of  Nice  soon  shared  the  same  fate.  In  1301 
Othman  encountered  for  the  first  time  a  regular  Greek  army,  which 
was  led  against  him  by  Muzaros,  the  commander  of  the  guards 
of  the  Byzantine  emperor.  This  important  battle  took  place  at 
Koyounhissar  (called  Baphoeum  by  the  Greeks)  in  the  vicinity  of 
Nicomedia.  Othman  gained  a  complete  victory;  and  in  the  suc- 
cessful campaigns  of  the  six  following  years  he  carried  his  arms  as 
far  as  the  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  securing  fortress  after  fortress, 
and  hemming  in  the  strong  cities  of  Brusa,  Nice,  and  Nicomedia 
(which  yet  were  retained  by  the  Greeks),  with  a  chain  of  fortified 
posts,  where  his  garrisons,  under  bold  and  skillful  chiefs,  were  ever 
on  the  watch  for  the  chance  of  a  surprise  or  the  material  for  a  foray. 
It  was  in  vain  that  the  Byzantine  court  sought  to  avert  the  pressure 
of  this  ever  active  enemy,  by  procuring  a  Mongol  army  to  attack 
Othman's  southern  dominions.  Othman  sent  his  son  Orkhan  against 
the  invaders,  and  the  young  prince  utterly  defeated  them.  Age  and 
infirmity  began  now  to  press  upon  Othman,  but  his  gallant  son  filled 
his  place  at  the  head  of  the  troops  with  undiminished  energy  and 
success.  In  1326  the  great  city  of  Brusa  surrendered  to  the  Otto- 
mans. Othman  was  on  his  death-bed,  at  Saegud,  the  first  town  that 
his  father  Ertoghrul  had  possessed,  when  his  son  effected  this  im- 
portant conquest ;  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  hear  the  glad  tidings, 
and  to  welcome  the  young  hero.  The  Oriental  writers  narrate  the 
last  scene  of  Othman's  life,  and  profess  to  record  his  dying  advice  to 
his  successor.  The  fair  Malkhatoon  had  gone  before  him  to  the 
grave ;  but  the  two  brave  sons  whom  she  had  borne  him,  Orkhan 
and  Alaeddin,  and  a  few  of  his  veteran  captains  and  sages,  were  at 
the  monarch's  death-bed.  "  My  son,"  said  Othman  to  Orkhan,  "  I 
am  dying ;  and  I  die  without  regret,  because  I  leave  such  a  successor 
as  thou  art.  Be  just ;  love  goodness,  and  show  mercy.  Give  equal 
protection  to  all  thy  subjects,  and  extend  the  law  of  the  Prophet. 
Such  are  the  duties  of  princes  upon  earth ;  and  It  Is  thus  that  they 
bring  on  them  the  blessings  of  Heaven."  Then,  as  if  he  wished  to 
take  actual  seizin  of  Brusa,  and  to  associate  himself  with  his  son's 
glory,  he  directed  that  he  should  be  buried  there;  and  advised  his 
son  to  make  that  city  the  seat  of  empire.  His  last  washes  were 
loyally  complied  with;  and    a    stately  mausoleum,    which  stood  at 


18  TURKEY 

1326 

Brusa  until  its  destruction  by  fire  in  the  present  age,  marked  the  last 
resting-place  of  Othman,  and  proved  the  pious  reverence  of  his 
descendants.  His  banner  and  his  saber  are  still  preserved  in  the 
treasury  of  the  empire :  and  the  martial  ceremony  of  girding  on  that 
saber  is  the  solemn  right,  analogous  to  the  coronations  of  Christen- 
dom, by  which  the  Turkish  Sultans  are  formally  invested  with 
sovereign  power. 

Othman  is  commonly  termed  the  first  Sultan  of  his  race;  but 
neither  he  nor  his  two  immediate  successors  assumed  more  than  the 
title  of  Emir.  He  had,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  reigned  as  an  inde- 
pendent Emir  twenty-seven  years,  and  had  been  chief  of  his  tribe  for 
thirty-nine  years  of  his  life  of  sixty-eight.  Notwithstanding  his 
blood-guiltiness  in  his  uncle's  death,  we  must  believe  him  to  have 
been  eminently  mild  and  gracious  for  an  Oriental  sovereign,  from 
the  traditional  attachment  with  which  his  memory  is  still  cherished 
by  his  nation,  and  which  is  expressed  at  the  accession  of  each  new 
Sultan  by  the  formula  of  the  people's  prayer,  "  May  he  be  as  good 
as  Othman." 


Chapter   III 

THE   OTTOMANS    ENTER   EUROPE.     1326-1359 

EMIR  OTHMAN  now  slept  at  Brusa,  and  Emir  Orkhan 
reigned  in  his  stead.  Fratricide  was  not  yet  regarded  as  the 
necessary  safeguard  of  the  throne;  and  Orkhan  earnestly 
besought  his  brother  Alaeddin  to  share  with  him  his  sovereignty  and 
his  wealth.  Alaeddin  firmly  refused  to  consent  to  any  division  of 
the  empire,  and  so  contravene  the  will  of  their  father,  who  had  ad- 
dressed Orkhan  only  as  his  successor.  Nor  would  Alaeddin  accept 
more  of  the  paternal  property  than  the  revenues  of  a  single  village, 
near  Brusa.  Orkhan  then  said  to  him,  "  Since,  my  brother,  thou 
wilt  not  take  the  flocks  and  the  herds  that  I  offer  thee,  be  thou  the 
shepherd  of  my  people;  be  my  Vizier."  The  word  "  Vizier,"  in  the 
Ottoman  language,  means  the  bearer  of  a  burden ;  and  Alaeddin,  in 
accepting  the  office,  took  on  him,  according  to  the  Oriental  his- 
torians, his  brother's  burden  of  power.  Alaeddin  did  not,  like  many 
of  his  successors  in  that  office,  often  command  in  person  the  armies 
of  his  race;  but  he  occupied  himself  most  efficiently  with  the  founda- 
tion and  management  of  the  civil  and  military  institutions  of  his 
country. 

All  the  Oriental  writers  concur  in  attributing  to  Alaeddin  the 
introduction  of  laws,  which  endured  for  centuries,  respecting  the 
costume  of  the  various  subjects  of  the  empire,  and  of  laws  which 
created  a  standing  army  of  regular  troops,  and  provided  funds  for 
its  support.  It  was,  above  all,  by  his  advice  and  that  of  a  contem- 
porary Turkish  statesman,  that  the  celebrated  corps  of  Janissaries 
was  formed,  an  institution  which  European  writers  erroneously  fix 
at  a  later  date,  and  ascribe  to  Murad  I. 

Alaeddin,  by  his  military  legislation,  may  be  truly  said  to  have 
organized  victory  for  the  Ottoman  race.  He  originated  for  the 
Turks  a  standing  army  of  regularly  paid  and  disciplined  infantry 
and  horse,  a  full  century  before  Charles  VII.  of  France  established 
his  fifteen  permanent  companies  of  men-at-arms,  which  are  generally 
regarded   as   the   first   standing  army  known  in   modern   history. 

19 


20  TURKEY 

1326 

Orkhan's  predecessors,  Ertoghrul  and  Othman,  had  made  war  at 
the  head  of  tlie  armed  vassals  and  volunteers,  who  thronged  on 
horseback  to  their  prince's  banner,  when  summoned  for  each  expe- 
dition, and  who  were  disbanded  as  soon  as  the  campaign  was  over. 
Alaeddin  determined  to  ensure  and  improve  future  successes  by 
forming  a  corps  of  paid  infantry,  which  should  be  kept  in  constant 
readiness  for  service.  These  troops  were  called  Yaya,  or  Piade ;  and 
they  were  divided  into  tens,  hundreds,  and  thousands,  under  their 
respective  decurions,  centurions,  and  colonels.  Their  pay  was  high ; 
and  their  pride  soon  made  them  objects  of  anxiety  to  their  sovereign. 
Orkhan  wished  to  provide  a  check  to  them,  and  he  took  counsel  for 
this  purpose  with  his  brother  Alaeddin  and  Kara  Khalil  Tschen- 
dereli,  who  was  connected  with  the  royal  house  by  marriage. 
Tschendereli  laid  before  his  master  and  the  vizier  a  project,  out  of 
which  arose  the  renowned  corps  of  the  Janissaries,  so  long  the 
scourge  of  Christendom ;  so  long,  also,  the  terror  of  their  own  sov- 
ereigns; and  which  was  finally  extirpated  by  the  Sultan  himself,  in 
our  own  age.  Tschendereli  proposed  to  Orkhan  to  create  an  army 
entirely  composed  of  Christian  children,  who  should  be  forced  to 
adopt  the  Mohammedan  religion.  Black  Khalil  argued  thus :  "  The 
conquered  are  the  property  of  the  conqueror,  who  is  the  lawful  mas- 
ter of  them,  of  their  lands,  of  their  goods,  of  their  wives,  and  of 
their  children.  We  have  a  right  to  do  what  we  will  with  our  own ; 
and  the  treatment  which  I  propose  is  not  only  lawful,  but  benevolent. 
By  enforcing  the  conversion  of  these  captive  children  to  the  true 
faith,  and  enrolling  them  in  the  ranks  of  the  army  of  the  true  be- 
lievers, we  consult  both  their  temporal  and  eternal  interests ;  for,  is 
it  not  written  in  the  Koran  that  all  children  are,  at  their  birth, 
naturally  disposed  to  Islam  ?  "  He  also  alleged  that  the  formation 
of  a  Mohammedan  army  out  of  Christian  children  would  induce 
other  Christians  to  adopt  the  creed  of  the  Prophet ;  so  that  the  new 
force  would  be  recruited,  not  only  out  of  the  children  of  the  con- 
quered nations,  but  out  of  a  crowd  of  their  Christian  friends  and 
relations,  who  would  come  as  volunteers  to  join  the  Ottoman 
ranks. 

Acting  on  this  advice,  Orkhan  selected  out  of  the  fam- 
ilies of  the  Christians  whom  he  had  conquered  a  thousand  of  the 
finest  boys.  In  the  next  year  a  thousand  more  were  taken ;  and  this 
annual  enrollment  of  a  thousand  Christian  children  was  continued 
for  three  centuries,  until  the  reign  of  Sultan  ]\Iohammed    IV.,    in 


OTTOMANS  ENTER  EUROPE      21 

1326 

1648.  When  the  prisoners  made  in  the  campaign  of  the  year  did 
not  supply  a  thousand  serviceable  boys,  the  number  was  completed 
by  a  levy  on  the  families  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan. 
This  was  changed  in  the  time  of  Mohammed  IV.,  and  the  corps  was 
thenceforth  recruited  from  among  the  children  of  Janissaries  and 
native  Turks;  but  during  the  conquering  period  of  the  Ottoman 
power,  the  institution  of  the  Janissaries,  as  designed  by  Alaeddin 
and  Tschendereli,  was  maintained  in  full  vigor. 

The  name  of  Yeni  Tscheri,  which  means  "  new  troops,"  and 
which  European  writers  have  turned  into  Janissaries,  was  given  to 
Orkhan's  young  corps  by  the  dervish  Hadji  Beytarch.  This  der- 
vish was  renowned  for  sanctity ;  and  Orkhan,  soon  after  he  had  en- 
rolled his  first  band  of  involuntary  boyish  proselytes,  led  them  to  the 
dwelling-place  of  the  saint,  and  asked  him  to  give  them  his  blessing 
and  a  name.  The  dervish  drew  the  sleeve  of  his  mantle  over  the 
head  of  one  in  the  first  rank,  and  then  said  to  the  Sultan,  "  The 
troop  which  thou  hast  created  shall  be  called  Yeni  Tscheri.  Their 
faces  shall  be  white  and  shining,  their  right  arms  shall  be  strong, 
their  sabers  shall  be  keen,  and  their  arrows  sharp.  They  shall  be 
fortunate  in  fight,  and  they  shall  never  leave  the  battlefield  save  as 
conquerors."  In  memory  of  that  benediction,  the  Janissaries  ever 
wore,  as  part  of  their  uniform,  a  cap  of  white  felt,  like  that  of  the 
dervish,  with  a  strip  of  woolen  hanging  down  behind,  to  represent 
the  sleeve  of  the  holy  man's  mantle,  that  had  been  laid  on  their 
comrade's  neck. 

The  Christian  children,  who  were  to  be  trained  as  Janissaries, 
were  usually  chosen  at  a  tender  age.  They  were  torn  from  their 
parents,  trained  to  renounce  the  faith  in  which  they  were  born  and 
baptized,  and  to  profess  the  creed  of  Mohammed.  They  were  then 
carefully  educated  for  a  soldier's  life.  The  discipline  to  which  they 
were  subjected  was  severe.  They  were  taught  the  most  implicit 
obedience ;  and  they  were  accustomed  to  bear  without  repining 
fatigue,  pain,  and  hunger.  But  liberal  honors  and  prompt  pro- 
motion were  the  sure  rewards  of  docility  and  courage.  Cut  off  from 
all  ties  of  country,  kith,  and  kin,  but  with  high  pay  and  privileges, 
with  ample  opportunities  for  military  advancement,  and  for  the 
gratification  of  the  violent,  the  sensual,  and  the  sordid  passions  of 
their  animal  natures  amid  the  customary  atrocities  of  successful 
warfare,  this  military  brotherhood  grew  up  to  be  the  strongest  and 
fiercest  instrument  of  imperial  ambition,  which  remorseless  fanati- 


22  TURKEY 

1326 

cism,  prompted  by  the  most  subtle  statecraft,  ever  devised  upon 
earth. 

The  Ottoman  historians  eulogize  with  one  accord  the  sagacity 
and  piety  of  the  founders  of  this  institution.  They  reckon  the  num- 
ber of  conquerors  whom  it  gave  to  earth,  and  of  heirs  of  paradise 
whom  it  gave  to  Heaven,  on  the  hypothesis  that,  during  three  cen- 
turies, the  stated  number  of  a  thousand  Christian  children,  neither 
more  nor  less,  was  levied,  converted,  and  enlisted.  They  boast,  ac- 
cordingly, that  three  hundred  thousand  children  were  delivered  from 
the  torments  of  hell  by  being  made  Janissaries.  But  Von  Hammer 
calculates,  from  the  increase  in  the  number  of  these  troops  under 
later  Sultans,  that  at  least  half  a  million  of  young  Christians  must 
have  been  thus  made,  first  the  helpless  victims,  and  then  the  cruel 
ministers  of  Mohammedan  power. 

After  the  organization  of  the  Janissaries,  Alaeddin  regulated 
that  of  the  other  corps  of  the  army.  In  order  that  the  soldier  should 
have  an  interest,  not  only  in  making,  but  in  preserving  conquests,  it 
was  determined  that  the  troops  should  receive  allotments  of  land  in 
the  subjugated  territories.  The  regular  infantry,  the  Piade,  had  at 
first  received  pay  in  money;  but  they  now  had  lands  given  to  them 
on  tenure  of  military  service,  and  they  were  also  under  the  obliga- 
tion of  keeping  in  good  repair  the  public  roads  that  led  near  their 
grounds.  The  irregular  infantry,  which  had  neither  pay  like  the 
Janissaries  nor  lands  like  the  Piade,  was  called  Azab,  which  means 
"  light."  The  lives  of  these  undisciplined  bands  were  held  of  little 
value ;  and  the  Azabs  were  thrown  forward  to  perish  in  multitudes 
at  the  commencement  of  a  battle  or  a  siege.  It  was  over  their  bodies 
that  the  Janissaries  usually  marched  to  the  decisive  charge  or  the 
final  assault. 

The  cavalry  was  distributed  by  Alaeddin,  like  the  infantry,  into 
regular  and  irregular  troops.  The  permanent  corps  of  paid  cavalry 
was  divided  into  four  squadrons,  organized  like  those  which  the 
Caliph  Omar  instituted  for  the  guard  of  the  Sacred  Standard.  The 
whole  corps  at  first  consisted  of  only  2400  horsemen ;  but  under 
Suleiman  the  Great  the  number  was  raised  to  4000.  They  marched 
on  the  right  and  left  of  the  Sultan;  they  camped  round  his  tent  at 
night,  and  they  were  his  bodyguard  in  battle.  One  of  these  regi- 
ments of  royal  horseguards  was  called  the  Turkish  Spahis,  a  term 
applied  to  ca\alry  soldiers  generally,  but  also  specially  denoting 
these  select  horseguards.     Another  regfiment  was  called  the  Silih- 


OTTOMANS     ENTER     EUROPE  23 

1326-1336 

dars,  meaning-  the  "  vassal  cavalry."  A  third  was  called  tjie  Ulufedji, 
meaning  the  "  paid  horsemen  " ;  and  the  fourth  was  called  Ghureba, 
meaning  "  the  foreign  horse."  Besides  this  permanently  embodied 
corps  of  paid  cavalry,  Alaeddin  formed  a  force  of  horsemen,  who  re- 
ceived grants  of  land  like  the  Piade.  As  they  paid  no  taxes  for  the 
lands  which  they  thus  held,  they  were  termed  Moselliman,  which 
means  "  tax-free."  They  were  commanded  by  Sandjak  Begs 
(princes  of  standards),  by  Bimbaschi  (chiefs  of  thousands),  and 
Soubashi  (chiefs  of  hundreds).  There  were  other  holders  of  the 
grand  and  petty  fiefs  which  were  called  Ziamets  and  Timars.  These 
terms  will  be  adverted  to  hereafter,  when  we  reach  the  period  at 
which  the  Turkish  feudal  system  was  more  fully  developed  and  de- 
fined. But  in  the  earliest  times  their  holders  were  bound  to  render 
military  service  on  horseback,  when  summoned  by  their  sovereign ; 
and  they  were  arrayed  under  banners,  in  thousands  and  in  hundreds, 
like  the  Mosellimans.  In  addition  to  the  regular  and  feudal  cavalry, 
there  were  the  Akindji,  or  irregular  light  horse,  receiving  neither 
pay  nor  lands,  but  dependent  on  plunder,  who  were  still  called  to- 
gether in  multitudes  whenever  an  Ottoman  army  was  on  the  march  ; 
and  the  terror  which  these  active  and  ferocious  marauders  spread  far 
and  wide  beyond  the  regular  line  of  operations  made  the  name  of 
the  Akindji  as  much  known  and  dreaded  in  Christendom  as  that  of 
the  Janissaries  and  Spahis. 

Orkhan  had  captured  the  city  of  Nicomedia  in  the  first  year  of 
his  reign  ( 1326)  ;  and  with  the  new  resources  for  warfare  which  the 
administrative  genius  of  his  brother  placed  at  his  command  he 
speedily  signalized  his  reign  by  conquests  still  more  important.  The 
great  city  of  Nice,  second  to  Constantinople  only  in  the  Greek  Em- 
pire, surrendered  to  him  in  1330.  Orkhan  gave  the  command  of  it 
to  his  eldest  son,  Suleiman  Pasha,  who  had  directed  the  operations 
of  the  siege.  Numerous  other  advantages  were  gained  over  the 
Greeks :  and  the  Turkish  prince  of  Karasi,  the  ancient  Mysia,  who 
had  taken  up  arms  against  the  Ottomans,  was  defeated ;  and  his 
capital  city,  Berghama,  the  ancient  Pergamus,  and  his  territory, 
annexed  to  Orklian's  dominions.  On  the  conquest  of  Karasi,  in  the 
year  1336  of  our  era,  nearly  the  whole  of  the  northwest  of  Asia 
Minor  was  included  in  the  Ottoman  Empire;  and  the  four  great 
cities  of  Brusa,  Nic(Mnedia,  Nice,  and  Pergamus  had  become  slr(Mig- 
holds  of  its  power. 

A  period  of  twenty  years,  without  further  conquests,  and  with- 


^4  TURKEY 

1336-1356 

out  war,  followed  the  acquisition  of  Karasi.  During  this  time  the 
Ottoman  sovereign  was  actively  occupied  in  perfecting  the  civil  and 
military  institutions  which  his  brother  had  introduced ;  in  securing 
internal  order,  in  founding  and  endowing  mosques  and  schools,  and 
in  the  construction  of  vast  public  edifices,  which  yet  attest  the  mag- 
nificence and  piety  of  Orkhan.  It  is  indeed  a  remarkable  trait  in  the 
characters  of  the  first  princes  of  the  Ottoman  dynasty  that,  unlike 
the  generality  of  conquerors,  especially  of  Asiatic  conquerors,  they 
did  not  hurry  on  from  one  war  to  another  in  ceaseless  avidity  for 
fresh  victories  and  new  dominions ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  they  were 
not  more  eager  to  seize  than  they  were  cautious  and  earnest  to  con- 
solidate. They  paused  over  each  subdued  province,  till,  by  assimila- 
tion of  civil  and  military  institutions,  it  was  fully  blended  into  the 
general  nationality  of  their  empire.  They  thus  gradually  molded, 
in  Asia  Minor,  a  homogeneous  and  a  stable  power ;  instead  of  pre- 
cipitately heaping  together  a  motley  mass  of  ill-arranged  provinces 
and  discordant  populations.  To  this  policy  the  long  endurance  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  compared  with  other  Oriental  empires  of  both 
ancient  and  modern  times,  is  greatly  to  be  ascribed.  And  the  extent 
to  which  this  policy  was  followed  in  Asia  Minor,  compared  with 
their  subsequent  practice  in  European  Turkey,  in  Syria,  and  in 
Egypt,  may  have  conduced  in  giving  to  the  Ottomans  a  firmer  hold 
on  the  first-named  country  than  they  possess  on  their  territories 
westward  of  the  Hellespont  and  southward  of  Mount  Taurus.  Every 
traveler  notes  the  difference ;  the  Ottomans  themselves  acknowledge 
it ;  and  Anatolia,  a  name  generally  though  not  accurately  used  as  co- 
extensive with  that  of  Asia  Minor,  is  regarded  by  the  modern 
Turks  as  their  stronghold  in  the  event  of  further  national  disasters. 
They  call  it  emphatically,  "  The  last  Home  of  the  Faithful."  The 
facts  already  mentioned  of  the  general  diffusion  of  Turkish  popu- 
lations over  Asia  Minor,  before  Othman's  time,  must  unquestion- 
ably have  greatly  promoted  the  solidity  as  well  as  the  extent  of  the 
dominion  which  he  and  his  successor  there  established ;  but  the  far- 
sighted  policy,  with  which  they  tempered  their  ambition,  was  also 
an  efficient  cause  of  permanent  strength ;  and  their  remote  descend- 
ants still  experience  its  advantageous  operation. 

The  friendly  relations  which  Orkhan  formed  with  the  Emperor 
Andronicus,  and  maintained,  though  not  uninterruptedly,  with  that 
prince  and  some  of  his  successors,  contributed  to  give  a  long  period 
of  twenty  years'  general  repose  to  the  Ottoman  power.     But  in  the 


OTTOMANS     ENTER     EUROPE  25 

1336-1356 

civil  wars  which  distracted  the  last  ages  and  wasted  the  last  re- 
sources of  the  Greek  Empire  the  auxiliary  arms  of  the  Turkish 
princes  were  frequently  called  over  and  employed  in  Europe.  The 
Emperor  Cantacuzene,  in  the  year  1346,  recognized  in  Orkhan  the 
most  powerful  sovereign  of  the  Turks;  and  he  hoped  to  attach  the 
Ottoman  forces  permanently  to  his  interests  by  giving  his  daughter 
in  marriage  to  their  ruler,  notwithstanding  the  difference  of  creed 
and  the  disparity  of  years  between  the  young  princess  and  the  old 
Turk,  who  was  now  a  widower  of  the  age  of  sixty.  The  pomp  of 
the  nuptials  between  Orkhan  and  Theodora  is  elaborately  described 
by  the  Byzantine  writers;  but  in  the  next  year,  during  which  the 
Ottoman  bridegroom  visited  his  imperial  father-in-law  at  Scutari, 
the  suburb  of  Constantinople,  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 
scenes  of  a  less  pleasing  character  to  the  Greeks  ensued.  Orkhan's 
presence  protected  the  Greek  emperor,  and  his  subjects  during  the 
display  of  festive  splendor  which  Scutari  exhibited  at  the  meeting  of 
the  sovereigns;  but  when  Orkhan  had  returned  to  his  Bithynian 
capital,  some  Ottoman  bands  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  pillaged 
several  towns  in  Thrace ;  but  they  were  at  last,  after  a  series  of  san- 
guinary encounters,  all  killed  or  taken  by  the  superior  forces  sent 
against  them. 

Not  long  afterward  the  war  that  raged  between  the  two  great 
maritime  republics  of  Venice  and  Genoa  along  almost  every  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean  and  its  connected  seas,  was  the  immediate 
cause  of  hostilities  between  the  troops  of  Orkhan  and  those  of  his 
father-in-law,  and  led  to  the  settlement  of  the  Ottomans  in  Europe. 
The  Genoese  possessed  the  European  suburb  of  Constantinople, 
called  Galata ;  and  the  Bosphorus  was  one  of  the  scenes  on  which  the 
most  obstinate  contests  were  maintained  between  their  fleets  and 
those  of  their  rivals,  Orkhan  hated  the  Venetians,  whose  fleets  had 
insulted  his  seaward  provinces,  and  who  had  met  his  diplomatic 
overtures  with  contempt,  as  if  coming  from  an  insignificant  barbar- 
ous chieftain.  The  Venetians  were  allies  of  Cantacuzene;  but 
Orkhan  sent  an  auxiliary  force  across  the  straits  to  Galata,  which 
there  cooperated  with  the  Genoese.  Orkhan  also  aided  the  em- 
peror's other  son-in-law,  John  Paleeologus,  in  the  civil  war  that  was 
kept  up  between  him  and  the  Greek  emperor.  In  the  midst  of  the 
distress  and  confusion  with  which  the  Byzantine  Empire  was  now 
oppressed,  Orkhan's  eldest  son,  Suleiman  Pasha,  struck  a  bold  blow 
in  behalf  of  his  own  race,  whicli  gave  the  Turks  a  permanent  estab- 


26 


TURKEY 


1356 

lishment  on  the  European  side  of  the  Hellespont.  This  important 
event  in  the  world's  history  took  place  in  1356.  The  Ottoman 
writers  pass  over  in  silence  the  previous  incursions  of  the  Turks  into 
Europe,  which  gained  no  conquest  and  led  to  no  definite  advantage ; 
but  they  dwell  fully  on  this  expedition  of  Suleiman,  and  adorn  it 
with  poetic  legends  of  the  vision  that  appeared  to  the  young  chief- 
tain as  he  mused  on  the  seashore  near  the  ruins  of  Cyzicus.  They 
tell  how  the  crescent  of  the  moon  rose  before  him  as  the  emblem  of 
his  race,  and  united  the  continents  of  Europe  and  Asia  with  a  chain 


cvpflwa 


V^ 


of  silver  light,  wdiile  temples  and  palaces  floated  up  out  of  the  great 
deep,  and  mysterious  voices  blended  with  the  sounding  sea,  exciting 
in  his  heart  a  yearning  for  predestined  enterprise,  and  a  sense  of 
supernatural  summons.  With  but  thirty-nine  of  his  chosen  war- 
riors he  embarked  at  night  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  Hellespont 
and  surprised  the  Castle  of  Tzympe,  on  the  opposite  coast.  Rein- 
forcements soon  pushed  across  to  the  adventurers ;  and  in  three  days 
Tzympe  was  garrisoned  by  three  thousand  Ottoman  troops. 

At  this  crisis,  Cantacuzene  was  so  severely  pressed  by  his  rival, 
John  Pala^ologus,  that,  instead  of  trying  to  dislodge  the  invaders 
from  Tzympe,  or  even  remonstrating  against  their  occupation  of 


OTTOMANS  ENTER  EUROPE      27 

1356 

that  fortress,  he  implored  the  help  of  Orkhan  against  his  domestic 
enemy.  Orkhan  gave  up  his  brother-in-law's  cause,  and  provided 
assistance  to  the  old  emperor.  But  he  ordered  that  assistance  to 
be  administered  by  Suleiman,  the  conqueror  of  Tzympe,  an  auxiliary 
the  most  formidable  to  those  with  whom  he  was  to  cooperate.  Ten 
thousand  more  Turks  were  sent  across  to  Suleiman,  who  defeated 
the  Slavonic  forces  which  Palaeologus  had  brought  into  the  empire : 
but  the  victors  never  left  the  continent  on  which  they  had  conquered. 

Cantacuzene  offered  Suleiman  ten  thousand  ducats  to  retire 
from  Tzympe.  The  sum  was  agreed  on ;  but  before  the  ransom  was 
paid  a  terrible  earthquake  shook  the  whole  district  of  Thrace  and 
threw  down  the  walls  of  its  fenced  cities.  The  Greeks  trembled  at 
this  visitation  of  Providence;  and  the  Turks  saw  in  it  the  interposi- 
tion of  Heaven  in  their  favor,  and  thought  that  the  hand  of  God  was 
smoothing  the  path  for  their  conquest  of  the  Promised  Land.  Two 
captains,  Adje  Beg  and  Ghasi  Fasil,  instantly  occupied  the  impor- 
tant town  of  Gallipoli,  marching  in  over  the  walls  which  the  earth- 
quake had  shattered,  and  unresisted  by  the  awe-struck  inhabitants, 

Suleiman,  on  hearing  that  his  troops  had  occupied  Gallipoli, 
refused  to  give  up  Tzympe ;  and  threw  large  colonies  of  Turks  and 
Arabs  across  the  straits,  which  he  planted  in  the  territory  which 
had  been  thus  acquired.  The  fortifications  of  Gallipoli  were  re- 
paired, and  that  important  post  was  strongly  garrisoned.  Suleiman 
took  possession  of  other  places  in  the  Thracian  Chersonese,  which 
he  strengthened  with  new  walls  and  secured  with  detachments  of 
his  best  troops.  The  Greek  emperor  made  a  formal  complaint  of 
these  aggressions  to  Orkhan,  who  replied  that  it  was  not  the  force  of 
arms  that  had  opened  the  Greek  cities  to  his  son,  but  the  will  of  God, 
manifested  in  the  earthquake.  The  emperor  rejoined  that  the  ques- 
tion was  not  how  the  Turks  had  marched  into  the  cities,  but  whether 
they  had  any  right  to  retain  them.  Orkhan  asked  time  to  consider 
the  subject,  and  afterward  made  some  proposals  for  negotiating 
the  restoration  of  the  cities;  but  he  had  firmly  resolved  to  take  full 
advantage  of  the  opportunities  for  aggrandizing  the  Ottoman 
power,  which  now  were  afforded  by  the  basis  for  operations  in 
Europe  which  had  been  acquired,  and  by  the  perpetual  dissensions 
that  raged  between  Cantacuzene  and  his  son-in-law  Palaeologus,  each 
of  whom  was  continually  soliciting  Orkhan's  aid  against  the  other, 
and  obtaining  that  aid  according  to  what  seemed  best  for  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Turkish  sovereign — the  real  enemy  of  them  both. 


28  TURKEY 

1359 

Orkhan  lived  only  three  years  after  the  capture  of  Tzympe  and 
GalHpoh :  his  son  Suleiman,  to  whom  he  owed  those  conquests,  and 
in  whom  he  had  hoped  to  leave  a  successor  who  should  surpass  all 
the  glories  hitherto  won  by  the  house  of  Othman,  had  died  before 
him.  An  accidental  fall  from  his  horse,  while  he  was  engaged  in 
the  favorite  Turkish  sport  of  falconry,  caused  the  young  conqueror's 
death.  Suleiman  was  not  buried  at  Brusa ;  but,  by  Orkhan's  order, 
a  tomb  was  built  for  him  on  the  shore  of  the  Hellespont,  over  which 
he  had  led  his  race  to  a  second  empire. 

Orkhan  died  in  the  year  1359  of  our  era,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
five,  after  a  reign  of  thirty-three  years,  during  which  the  most  im- 
portant civil  and  military  institutions  of  his  nation  w^ere  founded, 
and  the  Crescent  was  not  only  advanced  over  many  of  the  fairest 
provinces  of  Asia,  but  was  also  planted  on  the  European  continent, 
whence  its  enemies  have  hitherto  vainly  sought  to  dislodge  it  dur- 
ing five  centuries. 


Chapter    IV 

CONQUESTS    IN    EUROPE   AND   ASIA.     1359-1402 

THE  death  of  Suleiman  Pasha  had  opened  to  his  younger 
brother  Murad  the  inheritance  of  the  Ottoman  throne. 
Murad  was  forty  years  of  age  when  he  succeeded  his 
father  Orkhan,  and  he  reigned  thirty  years  over  the  Ottomans  in 
prosperity  and  glory.  His  first  projects  after  his  accession  were  to 
extend  the  European  conquests  of  his  father  and  brother ;  but  he  was 
checked  for  a  time  by  the  enmity  of  the  Prince  of  Caramania,  who 
stirred  up  a  revolt  in  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  the  center  of  Asia 
Minor.  Murad  marched  an  army  rapidly  to  the  scene  of  the  in- 
surrection, wdiich  he  completely  quelled.  He  then,  in  1360,  led  his 
troops  to  the  passage  of  the  Hellespont ;  and  commenced  a  series  of 
victories  in  Europe,  which  were  only  terminated  by  his  death  on  the 
field  »of  battle  at  Kosovo  in  1389.  Besides  wresting  from  the 
Greeks  numerous  places  of  secondary  value,  Murad  captured,  in 
1361,  the  great  city  of  Adrianople,  which  thenceforth  became  the 
capital  of  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  Europe,  until  Constantinople 
fell  before  Mohammed  II.  Pushing  his  conquests  toward  Mace- 
donia and  the  Haemus,  Murad  next  took  Sagrre  and  Philippopolis. 

The  Turkish  armies,  like  the  ancient  Roman  legions,  found  a 
principal  part  of  their  booty  in  the  prisoners  they  made,  and  who 
were  all  destined  for  sale  as  slaves.  The  number  of  prisoners  had 
increased  to  such  a  multitude  during  these  campaigns  of  Murad 
that  one  of  his  statesmen  pointed  out  to  him  the  importance  of 
steadily  enforcing  the  royal  prerogative  neglected  by  his  prede- 
cessors of  taking  a  fifth  part  of  the  spoil.  This  was  thenceforth 
exercised  by  the  Sultans,  who  sometimes  took  their  double  tithe 
in  kind ;  but  more  frequently  received  a  stated  sum  per  head,  as  the 
fifth  of  the  value  of  each  slave.  In  after  ages,  when  a  Christian 
nation  remonstrated  against  this  practice,  a  formal  stipulation, 
excepting  prisoners  of  war  of  that  nation  from  such  liability,  was 
usually  established  by  express  treaty. 

Hitherto  the  Turkish  victories  in  Europe  had  been  won  over 

29 


30  TURKEY 

1362-1376 

the  feeble  Greeks ;  but  the  Ottomans  now  came  in  contact  with  the 
far  more  warlike  Slavonic  tribes  which  had  founded  kingdoms  and 
principalities  in  Servia  and  Bosnia.  Murad  also  menaced  the  fron- 
tiers of  Wallachia  and  Hungary.  Pope  Urban  V.  preached  a  cru- 
sade against  the  infidel  Turks,  and  the  King  of  Hungary,  the  princes 
of  Servia,  of  Bosnia  and  Wallachia,  leagued  together  to  drive  the 
Ottomans  out  of  Europe.  Their  forces  marched  toward  Adrianople 
until  they  crossed  the  river  Maritza  at  a  point  not  more  than  two 
days'  journey  from  that  city.  Lalashahin,  who  then  was  in  com- 
mand of  the  Ottoman  forces  in  Europe,  w^as  unable  to  assemble  an 
army  equal  in  numbers  to  that  of  the  confederate  chieftains,  who 
mustered  more  than  20,000  men.  But  the  Christians,  in  the 
pride  of  assured  victory,  neglected  all  military  precautions  against 
their  enemy;  and  suddenly,  while  they  were  all  engaged  in  a 
nightly  revel,  the  sound  of  the  Turkish  drums  and  fifes  and  the 
shouts  of  "  Allah  "  were  heard  amid  the  darkness.  Their  active 
enemy  was  on  them ;  and  they  fled  in  panic  rout.  "  They  were 
caught,"  says  Seadeddin,  the  Oriental  historian,  *'  even  as  wild  beasts 
in  their  lair.  They  were  driven  before  us  as  flames  are  driven  be- 
fore the  wind,  till  plunging  into  the  Maritza  they  perished  in  its 
waters."  Such  was  the  issue  of  the  first  encounter  of  the  Hungarians 
and  Servians  with  the  Turks ;  and  centuries  of  further  disaster  and 
suffering  to  the  Christians  were  to  follow. 

A  long  list  of  battles  won  and  towns  taken  by  Murad  or  his 
generals  between  the  year  of  the  battle  of  ]\Iaritza,  in  1363,  and 
the  year  1376,  may  be  found  in  the  Turkish  historians.  In  the  last- 
mentioned  year  the  capture  of  the  strong  city  of  Nissa  by  the  Otto- 
mans forced  the  Prince  of  Servia  to  beg  peace,  which  was  granted 
to  him  on  the  condition  of  supplying  a  tribute  of  a  thousand  pounds 
of  silver,  and  a  thousand  horse-soldiers  every  year,  Sisvan,  the 
King  of  the  Bulgarians,  had  also  taken  part  in  the  hostilities  waged 
by  the  European  Christians  against  Murad,  and  he  also  was  com- 
pelled to  sue  for  mercy.  Sisvan  disliked  paying  money,  and  pre- 
ferred to  obtain  peace  by  giving  up  his  daughter  in  marriage  to  the 
conqueror. 

IMurad  now  rested  from  warfare  for  six  years,  during  which 
time  he  empldvcd  liimself  unremittingly  in  tlie  internal  aftairs  of 
his  state.  He  imjjroved  the  organization  of  his  military  force,  and 
completed  the  feudal  system  by  which  grants  of  land  in  each  con- 
quered country  were  made  to  ^Mohammedans,  on  condition  that  each 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     31 

1382-1387 

district  so  granted  should  supply  one  or  more  Spaliis  or  armed 
horsemen  in  time  of  war.  These  granted  districts  or  fiefs  (as  we 
may  term  them  by  applying  the  phraseology  of  medieval  Europe) 
were  classified  into  minor  fiefs,  called  Timars;  and  grand  fiefs,  called 
Ziamets.  During  this  season  of  peace  Murad  was  still  soHcitous 
to  extend  his  dominions ;  and  he  used  for  that  purpose  his  political 
and  diplomatic  skill  in  forming  such  matrimonial  alliances  for 
members  of  his  family  as  seemed  to  promise  the  future  acquisition 
of  new  provinces.  He  married  his  eldest  son  Bayezid  to  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  Prince  of  Kermian,  a  Turkish  state  in  Asia  Minor,  that 
adjoined  the  Ottoman  territories  in  that  country.  The  bride  brought 
as  her  dowry  a  new  kingdom  to  the  throne  of  Othman.  Murad's 
own  daughter  Nifisay  was  given  in  marriage  to  the  powerful  Turk- 
ish Prince  of  Caramania.  Murad  himself,  and  two  of  his  sons,  at  a 
later  period,  permitted  each  a  Byzantine  princess  to  be  added  to  their 
list  of  wives.  Ever  since  the  capture  of  Adrianople  the  Greek  em- 
peror had  cringed  to  the  Ottoman  sovereign,  and  sought  eagerly  to 
keep  up  such  treaties  with  his  infidel  neighbor  as  would  promise  him 
a  quiet  reign,  though  upon  mere  sufferance,  at  Constantinople.  But 
Palaeologus  hated  him  whom  he  feared;  and  the  Greek  emperor 
vainly,  in  1380,  underwent  the  expense  and  ignominy  of  a  voyage 
from  Constantinople  to  Rome,  where  he  sought,  by  the  most  abject 
submissions  to  the  Papacy,  to  obtain  a  new  crusade  by  the  Prankish 
kings  of  Christendom  against  the  Alohammedan  invaders  of  its 
eastern  regions.  In  terror  at  the  wrath  which  this  attempt  was 
likely  to  excite  in  Murad,  Palseologus  sent  his  third  son  Theodoras 
to  the  Ottoman  court,  with  a  humble  request  that  he  might  be  al- 
lowed to  serve  in  the  ranks  of  the  Turkish  army.  This  servile 
humility  allayed  the  anger  of  Murad. 

Notwithstanding  the  Ottoman  ruler's  policy  in  forming  a  bond 
of  marriage  between  his  house  and  that  of  the  Turkish  ruler  of 
Caramania,  a  war  broke  out  in  1387  between  these  two  powerful 
rivals  for  the  headship  of  the  Turkish  race  in  Asia  ]\Iinor.  A  great 
battle  was  fought  between  them  at  Iconinm,  in  which  the  valor  of 
Prince  Bayezid  on  the  side  of  the  Ottomans  was  particularly  signal- 
ized. He  is  said,  by  the  lightning-like  rapidity  and  violence  of  his 
charge  upon  the  enemy  on  that  day,  to  have  acquired  the  surname  of 
Ilderim,  or  "  the  Lightm'ng,"  by  which  he  is  known  in  history. 

The  Caramanian  prince  was  utterly  defeated  at  Iconium,  and 
owed  the  preservation  of  his  life  and  kingdom  to  the  interposition 


32  TURKEY 

1388 

of  his  wife,  who  succeeded  in  cahning  tlie  anger  of  her  victorious 
father,  and  in(hiced  him  to  he  satisfied  with  his  defeated  rival  ac- 
knowledging his  superiority,  and  kissing  his  hand  in  token  of 
submission,  Murad  dismissed  his  army  and  repaired  to  Brusa. 
But  the  old  lion  was  soon  roused  from  his  rest,  to  encounter  far 
more  formidable  foes,  who  were  leagued  together  to  tear  his  Euro- 
pean conquests  from  his  grasp. 

The  Ottoman  dominions  in  Europe  at  this  time,  1388,  com- 
prised nearly  the  whole  of  ancient  Thrace  and  modern  Rumelia. 
Some  important  acquisitions  beyond  the  boundary  of  this  province 
had  also  been  effected ;  and  the  conquerors  pursued  the  system  of 
planting  colonies  of  Turks  from  Asia  in  the  conquered  districts, 
while  they  removed  large  portions  of  the  old  population.  By  this, 
and  by  their  custom  of  recruiting  their  Janissaries  from  the  flower 
of  the  Christian  children,  they  excited  the  alarm  of  the  neighboring 
Christian  states,  who  saw  a  fierce  race,  alien  to  them  in  blood  and  in 
creed,  thus  taking  root  on  their  frontier,  and  organizing  the  re- 
sources of  the  subdued  country  for  future  military  enterprises.  The 
Bulgarians,  the  Servians,  the  Bosnians,  all  of  Slavonic  blood,  now 
united  in  one  great  national  effort  against  the  intrusive  Turks. 
Servia  was  chief  of  the  movement.  She  could  not  forget  her  proud 
position,  which  she  had  held  before  the  Ottomans  had  come  into 
Europe,  when  her  great  King  Stephen  Dusan  ruled  victoriously, 
from  Belgrade  to  the  Maritza,  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Adriatic, 
and  assumed  the  high  title  of  "  Emperor  of  the  Rumelians,  the 
Macedonian  Christ-loving  Czar."  Beside  these  Slavonic  nations, 
the  Skipetars,  of  Albany,  now  armed  against  the  common  enemy 
from  Asia.  The  powers  thus  allied  against  Murad  expected  also  and 
received  assistance  from  the  semi-Roman  population  of  Wallachia 
and  from  the  Alagyars  of  Hungary,  who,  like  their  kinsmen  the 
Ottoman  Turks,  had  won  by  force  a  settlement  in  Europe ;  but  who, 
unlike  the  Turks,  adopted  the  creed  and  the  civilization  of  European 
Christendom,  and  became  for  ages  its  chivalrous  defenders.  Slavonic 
Poland  also  sent  aid  to  her  sister  Slavonic  kingdom  of  the  south.  No 
further  succor  was  obtainable.  The  other  great  kingdom  of  that 
family  of  nations,  Russia,  lay  at  this  time  in  wretched  slavery  under 
the  Mongols.  The  great  kingdoms  of  Western  Christendom  heard 
with  indifference  the  sufferings  and  the  perils  to  which  its  eastern 
portions  were  exposed  by  the  new  ^Mohammedan  power.  The  old 
crusading  enthusiasm  had  faded  away;  nor  could,  indeed,  the  im- 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     33 

1389 

mediate  stimulant  of  a  cry  to  the  rescue  of  the  Holy  Land  be  em- 
ployed against  the  Ottomans,  who  had  not  yet  approached  the 
Syrian  territory.  The  internal  condition,  at  the  latter  part  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  of  each  of  the  great  European  states,  which  had 
supplied  the  heroes  of  the  early  crusades,  was  peculiarly  unfavorable 
for  the  efforts  of  those  who  strove  to  arouse  their  descendants  to  a 
similar  expedition.  And  the  personal  character  of  the  sovereigns 
of  England,  France,  and  Germany,  in  1388,  forbade  all  hopes  of 
seeing  the  examples  of  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  of  Edward  I.,  of 
Philip  Augustus  of  St.  Louis,  of  Conrad,  and  Frederick  IL,  imi- 
tated by  their  successors.  The  weak  and  worthless  Richard  IL  was 
sovereign  of  England;  the  imbecile  Charles  VL  was  enthroned  at 
Paris.  Both  countries  were  the  scenes  of  perpetual  strife  between 
powerful  nobles,  and  of  general  confusion  and  lawlessness.  The 
German  Empire,  under  the  coarse  and  dissolute  Wenceslaus,  was  in 
a  still  more  wretched  condition :  and  the  great  civil  war  between  tlie 
confederations  of  brigand  knights  and  the  burghers  of  the  free  cities 
was  raging  from  the  Danube  to  the  Rhine.  The  Christian  princes 
of  Spain  were  still  fully  occupied  with  their  long  struggles  against 
their  own  Moorish  invaders.  The  difficulty  of  uniting  the  powers 
of  the  West  in  any  enterprise  against  the  common  foe  of  their  re- 
ligion was  augmented  tenfold  by  the  schism  in  the  Papacy,  which 
then  divided  the  whole  of  Western  Christendom. 

But  although  the  great  powers  of  Western  Christendom  stood 
aloof  from  the  struggle  made  by  the  Christian  nations  of  the  East 
to  free  themselves  from  the  pressure  of  the  Ottoman  conquests, 
Murad  saw  that  the  league  which  the  ruler  of  Servia  had  succeeded 
in  organizing  against  him  was  one  which  it  would  tax  his  utmost 
energies  to  encounter.  The  Bulgarians  and  Servians  had  com- 
menced tlie  w-ar  by  falling  upon  an  Ottoman  army  which  was 
moving  through  Bosnia.  They  destroyed  fifteen  out  of  twenty 
thousand  Turks  ^  by  the  impetuous  suddenness  of  their  attack,  and 
the  great  superiority  of  their  numljers.  After  this  vigorous  blow 
the  Christians  relaxed  in  their  exertions.  The  vacillations  and  de- 
lays, which  usually  mark  the  movements  of  a  confederacy,  kept  the 
forces  of  the  greater  number  of  tlie  allies  inactive  during  several 
months  of  the  year  1389;  while  their  vigorous  and  resolute  adver- 
sary was  pouring  his  forces  into  Bulgaria    and  completing  the  con- 

^  All   statcmcnls  as  to   the  size  of  armies,  their  losses,  etc.,  in   the  Middle 
Ages  are  at  best  only  approximate  and  should  be  received  with  caution. — Ed. 


34  TURKEY 

1389 

quest  of  that  important  member  of  their  league.  Murad  was  es- 
pecially incensed  against  Sisvan,  the  Bulgarian  king,  who  had  kept 
up  the  appearance  of  submissive  devotion  to  the  Turkish  interests, 
until  he  suddenly  joined  the  Servians  in  the  attack  upon  his  son-in- 
law's  forces  in  Bosnia.  The  necessity  of  making  regulations  for 
the  defense  and  internal  government  of  Rumelia  during  the  war,  and 
of  calling  into  active  service  and  arranging  the  full  military  force 
of  the  province,  detained  Murad  himself  for  a  short  time  in  Adrian- 
ople;  but  he  sent  his  general,  Ali  Pasha,  forward  into  Bulgaria 
with  an  army  of  30,000  men.  The  Turks  now  marched  north- 
ward to  conquest  across  that  mountain  chain  of  the  Balkan,  which 
their  descendants  in  the  past  century  trusted  so  implicitly  as  a 
barrier  against  attacks  upon  themselves.  Ali  Pasha  advanced  with 
the  main  army  through  the  passes  of  Nadir  Derbend  upon 
Shumla,  so  celebrated  in  modern  Russian  w^ars.  Shumla  surren- 
dered to  the  Turks.  Tirnova  and  Pravadi  were  also  captured  by 
Ali  Pasha  and  his  lieutenant,  Yakshibey;  and  the  Bulgarian  king 
took  refuge  in  Nicopolis  on  the  Danube.  Ali  Pasha  besieged  him 
there,  and  Sisvan  begged  for  peace.  Murad  granted  it,  on  condi- 
tion that  Silistria  should  be  ceded  to  him,  and  that  the  conquered 
Sisvan  should  pay  him  a  regular  tribute.  But  disputes  broke  out 
as  to  the  fulfillment  of  the  terms  of  peace;  the  war  was  recom- 
menced, and  the  Turks  stormed  the  strong  places  of  Dridja  and 
Hirschova.  Besieged  again  in  Nicopolis,  the  Bulgarian  king  sur- 
rendered at  discretion.  His  life  w-as  spared ;  but  Bulgaria  was  now 
annexed  to  the  Ottoman  Empire,  which  thus  advanced  its  northern 
frontier  to  the  Danube. 

The  Servian  King  Lazarus,  alarmed  at  the  destruction  of  his 
confederate,  now  earnestly  collected  the  forces  of  the  remaining 
members  of  the  anti-Turkish  league,  and  prepared  for  a  resolute 
struggle.  So  large  was  the  force  which  he  drew  around  him  that 
in  the  pride  and  confidence  of  his  heart  he  sent  Murad  a  formal  chal- 
lenge to  a  decisive  battle.  Murad  had  now  taken  in  person  the 
command  of  the  Turkish  army,  and  continued  his  policy  of  acting 
on  the  offensive,  and  making  his  enemy's  territory  the  seat  of  war. 
He  marched  westward  from  Bulgaria  through  a  difficult  and  moun- 
tainous country  to  the  neighborhood  of  Kosovo,  on  the  frontiers 
of  Servia  and  Bosnia,  where  his  enemies  had  collected  their  troops. 
The  i)lain  of  Kosovo,  on  which  the  fate  of  Servia  was  decided  on 
August  27,  1389,  is  traversed  by  the  little  stream  of  the  Schinitza. 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     35 

1389 

On  the  north  side  of  this  rivulet  the  combined  levies  of  Servia, 
Bosnia,  and  Albania,  with  their  auxiliaries  from  Poland,  Hun- 
gary, and  Wallachia,  w^ere  arrayed  in  numbers  far  exceeding 
those  of  the  troops  which  Murad  had  in  hand  for  battle.^  Accord- 
ing to  the  Ottoman  historians,  Murad  summoned  a  council  of  war 
to  deliberate  whether  he  should  attack  the  enemy  that  seemed  so 
superior  in  force.  Several  of  the  Turkish  chiefs  advised  that  he 
should  draw  up  all  the  camels  of  their  baggage-train  in  a  line  before 
the  army,  so  as  to  serve  as  a  living  rampart,  and  to  disorder  the 
enemy's  horse  by  the  sight  and  smell  of  those  animals.  Murad's 
eldest  son,  Prince  Bayezid,  opposed  this  project :  he  fiercely  urged 
that  Heaven  had  ever  manifestly  favored  the  arms  of  the  house  of 
Othman,  and  that  to  employ  such  artifices  would  show  a  distrust  of 
Providence.  "  The  honor  of  our  flag,"  said  he,  "  requires  that 
those  who  march  beneath  the  Crescent  should  meet  their  enemy  face 
to  face,  let  that  enemy  be  who  he  will."  The  Grand  Vizier  gave  his 
vote  also  for  open  fighting,  on  the  authority  of  what  he  believed  to 
be  a  supernatural  warning.  He  had  opened  the  Koran  at  random, 
and  had  fallen  upon  the  verse,  "  O  Prophet,  fight  the  unbelievers 
and  the  hypocrites."  He  had  tried  these  sortcs  Koranicas  again, 
and  the  verse  which  then  presented  itself  was,  "  Verily  a  large  host 
is  often  beaten  by  a  weaker  one." 

In  the  other  camp  the  discussions  of  the  confederate  princes 
were  equally  long  and  uncertain.  Some  advised  an  attack  on  the 
Turks  by  night,  in  revenge  probably  for  the  disaster  of  the  Maritza, 
twenty-six  years  before.  Others  opposed  this  plan  as  full  of  risk 
and  confusion,  and  also  because  the  enemy  would  have  a  better 
chance  of  escaping  in  the  night  than  if  they  waited  for  daylight  for 
the  victory  which  they  deemed  secure.  The  morning  at  last  broke 
upon  the  two  camps ;  and  with  the  dawn  there  came  a  heavy  fall  of 
rain,  which  completely  laid  the  dust,  and  seemed  to  ]\Iurad  and  his 
followers  to  be  an  express  sign  that  God  was  with  them. 

The  rain  ceased  after  a  while,  and  the  two  armies  came  forth 
from  their  tents  on  a  fair  and  open  field,  and  drew  themselves  up  for 
battle.  The  Turks  were  arrang'cd  in  their  customary  order.  As 
tlie  battle  was  in  Europe,  the  Enroj^can  feudatory  troops  were  on 
the  right  wing,  and  those  of  Asia  on  tlie  left.  Prince  Bayezid  com- 
manded on  the  right ;  the  other  wing  was  led  by  ^hirad's  other  sur- 

-  According   to    the    Turkish    historian    Seadcddin ;    the    Servian    clironicles 
say  that  the  Turkish  army  was  three  times  as  great  as  tlie  Christian. 


36  TURKEY 

1389 

viving  son,  Prince  Yacoub.  Miirad  himself  was  in  the  center  with 
the  Janissaries  and  the  cavalry  regiments  of  his  guard.  The  irreg- 
ulars, horse  and  foot,  the  Akindji,  and  the  Azabs,  skirmished  in  the 
van.  On  the  Christian  side,  King  Lazarus  commanded  the  center. 
His  nephew,  Vuk  Brankovic,  led  the  right,  and  the  King  of  Bosnia 
the  left  wing.  Both  armies  advanced  resolutely  to  the  charge,  en- 
countered each  other  fiercely,  stood  their  ground  firmly;  and  the 
event  of  the  day  was  long  doubtful.  The  Asiatic  troops  in  the  left 
wing  of  the  Mohammedan  army  began  at  last  to  give  way  before 
the  warriors  of  Servia  and  Albania,  who  pressed  them  on  the  Chris- 
tians' right.  Prince  Bayezid  brought  succor  from  the  right  wing  of 
the  Ottomans,  and  restored  the  fight.  Armed  with  a  heavy  mace 
of  iron,  he  fought  in  person  in  the  thick  of  the  battle,  and  smote 
down  all  who  dared  to  cross  his  path.  While  the  two  armies  thus 
strove  together,  and  the  field  was  heaped  thickly  with  carnage,  a 
Servian  nobleman,  Milosh  Kabilovic,  rode  to  the  Ottoman  center, 
pretending  that  he  was  a  deserter,  and  had  important  secrets  to  re- 
veal to  Murad  in  person.  Pie  was  led  before  the  Turkish  sovereign  ; 
he  knelt  as  if  in  homage  before  him  and  then  stabbed  Murad  with  a 
sudden  and  mortal  stroke  of  his  dagger.  Milosh  sprang  up  from 
his  knees,  and,  gifted  with  surprising  strength  and  activity,  he  thrice 
cleared  himself  from  the  vengeful  throng  of  the  Ottomans  who  as- 
sailed him,  and  fought  his  way  to  the  spot  where  his  horse  had  been 
left;  but  ere  he  could  remount,  the  Janissaries  overpowered  him,  and 
hewed  him  into  pieces.  Murad  knew  that  his  wound  was  mortal ; 
but  he  had  presence  of  mhid  sufficient  to  give  the  orders  for  a 
charge  of  his  reserve,  which  decided  the  victory  in  his  favor.  Plis 
rival,  the  Servian  king,  was  brought  captive  into  his  presence, 
and  Murad  died  in  the  act  of  pronouncing  the  death-doom  of  his  foe. 
The  execution  of  King  Lazarus  was  not  the  only  one  of  which 
the  royal  Ottoman  tent  was  the  scene  before  the  close  of  that  day. 
Prince  Bayezid,  when  the  victory  over  the  Christians  was  secure, 
returned  to  the  Turkish  camp,  and  was  acknowledged  by  his  father's 
generals  as  their  sovereign.  Forthwith,  and  in  the  very  presence 
of  his  father's  lifeless  remains,  Bayezid  ordered  his  brother  Yacoub, 
who  had  fought  valiantly  through  the  battle,  to  be  seized  and  put 
to  death.  This  fratricide  was  committed  in  pursuance  of  the  maxim 
of  the  Koran,  "  Dis(|uiet  is  worse  than  putting  to  deatli."  It  was 
rendered  particularly  necessary  by  the  evil  example  of  revolt  w^hicli 
their  brother  Saoudji  had  given  in  Murad's  lifetime,  w-hich  proved 


CONQUESTS  IN  EUROPE  AND  ASIA  37 

1390-1392 

the  necessity  of  cutting  off  those  who  were  likely  to  imitate  such 
conduct.  The  death  of  Yacoub  was  also,  according  to  the  Turkish 
historian  Seadeddin,  justifiable,  because  the  Sultan,  the  shadow  of 
God  upon  earth,  and  the  Lord  of  all  true  believers,  ought  to  reign  in 
conformity  with  the  ever-to-be-imitated  example  of  God,  alone  upon 
the  throne,  and  without  the  possibility  of  anyone  revolting  against 
him.  According  to  some  authorities  it  was  from  Bayezid's  deadly 
rapidity  in  securing  his  accession  by  his  brother's  death  that  he 
acquired  the  surname  of  "  Ilderim."  His  reign  commenced  in  the 
camp,  and  he  followed  up  the  war  against  the  Servians  with  vigor 
and  success,  that  showed  him  to  be  the  heir  of  his  father's  valor  as 
well  as  of  his  throne.  Stephen  Laserovic,  the  new  King  of  Servia, 
found  that  it  was  hopeless  to  continue  the  struggle,  and  entered  into 
a  treaty  by  which  Servia  became  the  vassal  state  of  the  Ottomans. 
Laserovic  gave  the  Sultan  his  sister  to  wife,  and  agreed  to  pay  as  tri- 
bute-money a  certain  portion  of  the  produce  of  all  the  silver  mines  in 
his  dominions.  Lie  undertook  also  to  render,  in  person,  military 
service  to  the  Sultan  in  all  his  campaigns,  and  throughout  his  life  he 
honorably  performed  his  portion  of  the  compact.  In  the  great 
battles  of  Nicopolis  and  Angora,  Laserovic  fought  by  the  side  of  his 
brother-in-law.  He  was  (says  the  modern  historian  of  Servia) 
apparently  bound  to  this  house  by  an  oath,  and  with  the  zeal  of  a 
kinsman  he  exerted  himself  in  the  adjustment  of  quarrels  that  broke 
out  in  the  Ottoman  family. 

Having  successfully  concluded  the  Servian  war,  Bayezid  passed 
over  to  his  Asiatic  dominions,  which  he  increased  by  fresh  conquests 
over  the  neighboring  states.  In  1390  the  Turkish  "Lightning" 
was  again  in  Europe,  waging  war  on  Wallachia,  Bosnia,  Hungary, 
and  the  wretched  remnants  of  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Myrtche,  the 
Prince  of  Wallachia,  submitted  to  Bayezid  in  1391,  and  thenceforth 
Wallachia  was  for  centuries  in  the  list  of  the  tributary  states  of  the 
Ottoman  Porte.  The  Bosnians,  aided  by  the  Hungarians,  offered  a 
more  obstinate  resistance.  In  1392  the  Hungarian  king,  Sigis- 
mund,  advanced  into  Bulgaria  and  gained  several  advantages,  but 
was  at  last  overpowered  by  the  superior  forces  of  the  Turks,  and 
driven  in  utter  rout  back  into  his  own  kingdom.  It  was  while  King 
Sigismund  in  the  course  of  his  retreat  from  the  campaign  traversed 
the  county  of  Iluniade,  that  he  saw  and  became  enamored  of  the 
fair  Elizabeth  Alorsini.  It  is  said  and  sung  that  monarchs  seldom 
sigh  in  vain;  and  from  this  love-passage  of  the  fugitive  Sigisinund 


38  TURKEY 

1392-1396 

ensued  the  birth  of  Hunyady  the  Great,  the  conqueror  of  the  Turks 
in  many  a  well-fought  field. 

Bayezid's  European  enemies  obtained  a  seasonable  relief  from 
the  pressure  of  his  arms  by  the  sudden  attack  which  the  Prince  of 
Caramania  made  in  1392  upon  the  Ottoman  possessions  in  Asia. 
The  Caramanian  armies  were  at  first  so  far  successful  that  the 
Ottoman  troops  suffered  a  complete  overthrow  between  Angora  and 
Brusa;  and  Timurtash,  Bayezid's  viceroy  in  Asia,  was  taken  pris- 
oner. But  on  the  arrival  of  Bayezid  himself  in  Asia  the  fortune 
of  the  war  was  speedily  changed.  The  Caramanian  prince  was 
defeated  and  captured,  and  placed  in  the  custody  of  his  own  former 
prisoner,  Timurtash.  Without  waiting  for  orders  from  Bayezid, 
Timurtash  put  the  unhappy  Caramanian  to  death.  Bayezid  was 
at  first  angry  at  such  an  act  having  been  done  on  the  general's  own 
authority,  but  he  excused  it  on  consideration  of  high  state  policy, 
and  justified  it  by  the  maxim  that  "  The  death  of  a  prince  is  not  so 
bad  as  the  loss  of  a  province."  That  maxim  was  afterward  regu- 
larly quoted  by  the  Turkish  rulers  when  they  ordered  the  execution 
of  any  prince. 

Caramania  now  submitted  to  the  Ottomans,  and  all  the  south 
of  Asia  Minor  acknowledged  Bayezid  as  sovereign.  He  then  sent 
his  armies  into  the  east  and  north  of  that  country,  and  annexed 
Sivas,  Kastemouni,  Samsoun,  and  Amassia,  with  their  territories,  to 
his  dominions.  Bayezid  disdained  the  title  of  Emir,  which  his 
three  predecessors  had  borne,  and  obtained  from  the  successor  of  the 
caliphs  (who  w^as  maintained  in  empty  state  by  the  Mameluke  sov- 
ereign of  Egypt,  but  still  recognized  as  the  religious  chief  of  the 
Mohammedan  world)  the  superior  title  of  Sultan.  Proud  of  his 
numerous  victories  and  rapidly  augmented  pow-er,  Bayezid  now 
gave  himself  up  for  a  time  to  luxurious  ease  and  to  sensual  excesses 
of  the  foulest  description.  He  is  the  first  of  the  Ottoman  princes 
who  infringed  the  law  of  the  Prophet  which  forbids  the  use  of  wine. 
His  favorite  general,  Ali  Pasha,  had  set  his  master  the  example  of 
drunkenness,  and  Bayezid  debased  himself  by  sharing  and  imitating 
his  subject's  orgies. 

Bayezid  was  startled  from  his  flagitious  revels  by  a  crusade  of 
the  Christian  chivalry  of  Frankistan  in  1396.  Sigismund,  King 
of  Hungary,  felt  deeply  after  the  day  of  Kosovo  and  the  fall 
of  Servia  the  imminence  of  the  peril  to  which  his  owai  country  was 
exposed ;  and  he  succeeded  in  moving  the  sympathies  of  other  mem- 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     39 

1396 

bers  of  the  Latin  Church  into  active  enterprise  on  his  behalf.  Pope 
Boniface  IX.,  in  the  year  1394,  proclaimed  a  crusade  against  the 
Ottomans,  with  plenary  indulgence  to  all  Christians  who  should 
forthwith  repair  to  the  rescue  of  Hungary  and  the  neighboring 
kingdoms.  Sigismund  was  especially  earnest  in  his  endeavors  to 
move  the  Court  of  France  to  send  troops  to  his  assistance.  The 
cessation  of  hostilities  between  France  and  England,  about  this 
time,  favored  the  grant  of  the  Hungarian  request;  and  many  of 
the  martial  youth  of  France  and  Burgundy  were  now  eager  for  new 
adventures  and  fresh  scenes  of  distinction.  It  was  resolved  that  the 
Count  de  Nevers,  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  should  lead  a 
body  of  men-at-arms  to  the  aid  of  the  Hungarian  king,  and  that 
he  should  be  commander-in-chief  of  the  French  and  other  chivalry. 
Knights  and  squires  began  now  to  gather  together,  with  other  gen- 
tlemen who  were  desirous  of  renown.  The  chief  commanders, 
under  the  Count  de  Nevers,  were  the  Count  de  la  Manche  and  the 
three  cousins  of  the  French  King,  James  of  Bourbon,  and  Henri  and 
Philippe  de  Bar. 

They  marched  from  France  in  companies  about  the  middle  of 
March,  1396;  and  as  they  traversed  Germany,  they  were  joined  by 
Frederic,  Count  of  Hohenzollern,  Grand  Prince  of  the  Teutonic 
Order,  and  the  Grand  Master  Philibert  de  Naillac,  who  came  from 
Rhodes  at  the  head  of  a  strong  body  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem.  Besides  this  splendid  auxiliary  force,  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary had  obtained  the  services  of  a  body  of  Bavarian  knights,  com- 
manded by  the  Elector  Palatine  and  the  Count  of  Munspelgarde; 
and  he  had  also  been  joined  by  a  band  of  the  chivalry  of  Styria, 
headed  by  Herman,  second  Count  de  Cilli.  Altogether,  the  cru- 
saders of  Western  Christendom  who  marched  to  the  Danube  against 
the  Ottomans  in  1396  appear  to  have  been  from  10,000  to  12,000 
in  number,  all  men  "  of  tried  courage  and  enterprise,"  as  the 
old  chronicler  calls  them,  full  of  confidence  in  their  cause  and  in 
their  own  valor,  and  who  boasted  in  tlie  pride  of  their  hearts  that 
"  if  the  sky  were  to  fall,  they  would  uphold  it  on  the  points  of  their 
lances."  Sigismund  had  collected  the  full  strength  of  his  own  king- 
dom, and  had  also  prevailed  on  Myrtchc,  the  Prince  or  Voivode  of 
W'allachia,  to  join  him  in  this  grand  combined  attack  on  the  Otto- 
man power,  although  Wallachia  had  some  time  before  obtained 
peace  from  tlie  Turks  on  condition  of  paying  a  stipulated  tribute. 

The  confederate  Christian  army  marched  in  divisions,  partly 


40  TURKEY 

1396 

through  Transylvania  and  Wallachia.  and  partly  through  Servia, 
against  the  Ottoman  dominions.  The  Servian  prince  remained 
faithful  to  his  alliance  with  Bayezid,  and  his  subjects  were  therefore 
visited  with  merciless  pillage  and  devastation  by  the  army  of  fellow- 
Christians  who  marched  through  their  land.  The  first  Turkish 
town  that  Sigismund  attacked  was  Widdin,  which  surrendered  im- 
mediately. Orsova  yielded  after  five  days'  resistance.  Raco  was 
taken  by  assault,  and  the  garrison  put  to  the  sword,  though  they  laid 
down  their  arms  and  asked  for  quarter.  The  practice  of  refusing 
mercy  to  a  fallen  enemy  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  Turkish 
side :  and,  indeed,  even  in  the  hostilities  of  one  Christian  nation 
against  another,  no  law  or  custom  of  war  against  butchering  de- 
feated and  unresisting  enemies  was  yet  recognized.  When  lives 
were  spared  it  was  generally  from  the  hope  of  obtaining  ransom, 
or  from  sheer  weariness  and  satiety  of  slaughter.  The  Christian 
army  marched  next  against  Nicopolis,  which  was  closely  invested. 
The  commander  of  the  Turkish  garrison,  Yoglan  Beg,  made  a 
gallant  and  obstinate  resistance,  in  the  full  hope  that  Bayezid  would 
not  suffer  so  important  a  city  to  fall  without  making  an  effort  for  its 
relief.  The  Sultan  had  indeed  now  crossed  the  Bosphorus  from 
Asia,  and  was  leading  the  best  troops  of  his  empire  to  encounter 
these  new  foes  from  the  Far  West.  The  stubborn  valor  of  the 
commander  of  Nicopolis  was  of  the  utmost  value  to  his  sovereign, 
by  giving  him  time  to  concentrate  and  bring  up  his  forces  to  the 
scene  of  action.  Bayezid's  generalship  was  far  superior  to  the  mil- 
itary conduct  on  the  side  of  the  Christians.  They,  and  especially 
the  French,  in  arrogant  confidence  of  their  invincibility,  gave  them- 
selves up  to  riotous  carousals,  and  neglected  the  most  ordinary  pre- 
cautions to  ascertain  whether  any  enemy  was  advancing.  "  Bayezid 
would  not  dare  to  come  across  the  Bosphorus."  Such  was  their 
boast,  at  the  very  time  when  Bayezid  was  swiftly  and  silently  ap- 
proaching with  his  well-appointed  and  well-disciplined  army  within 
six  leagues  of  their  camp.  The  Count  de  Xevers  and  his  French 
chivalry  were  at  table  on  September  24,  1396,  when  messengers 
hurried  in  with  news  that  some  marauders  from  the  camp  had 
come  upon  a  great  army  of  Turks,  which  was  even  then  close  at 
hand.  The  young  paladins  of  France  rose  hot  and  flushed  at  the 
tidings,  and  ran  to  arms,  demanding  that  they  should  be  led 
instantly  to  battle.  The  Turkish  irregular  troops,  the  Azabs  and 
the  Akindji,  were  now  seen  hovering  near ;  and  the  Count  de  Nevers, 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA41 

1396 

while  his  French  cavalry  was  forming  hastily  in  line,  required  of 
King  Sigismund  that  they  should  be  the  van  of  the  Christian  army, 
and  fill  the  post  of  honor  in  the  battle.  Sigismund,  who  knew  well 
the  Turkish  tactics,  urged  on  the  count  that  it  would  be  wiser  to 
send  some  light  troops  against  the  half-armed  and  undisciplined 
hordes,  which  they  saw  before  them,  and  to  reserve  the  French 
chivalry,  as  the  flower  of  the  Christian  army,  to  meet  the  Janissaries 
and  Spahis,  the  best  troops  on  the  other  side.  The  Sire  de  Courcy 
and  the  admiral  advised  compliance  with  the  king's  advice,  but  the 
constable  and  the  Marechal  Boucicault  opposed  it,  out  of  a  spirit  of 
rivalry,  and  insisted  that  the  French  cavalry  should  not  suffer  any 
Hungarians  to  precede  them  to  battle.  The  young  knights  all  ap- 
plauded these  proud  words ;  and  in  ferocious  insolence  of  spirit,  they 
massacred  some  Turkish  prisoners,  whom  they  had  in  their  power, 
and  who  had  surrendered  on  promise  of  quarter — an  act  of  useless 
perfidy  and  cruelty,  which  was  soon  to  receive  its  chastisement. 

Bayezid  had  halted  his  main  army  in  a  plain  at  a  short  distance 
from  the  Christian  camp.  There  was  some  rising  ground  in  the 
interval,  which  screened  the  Turks  from  the  enemy's  observation. 
The  Sultan  sent  his  irregular  troops  forward  and  supported  them 
by  a  body  of  Janissaries,  and  by  a  large  division  of  his  cavalry;  but 
he  reserved  40,000  of  his  best  troops,  and  kept  them  under 
arms,  and  drawn  up  in  perfect  order  on  the  plain.  On  the  other 
side  the  French  cavalry,  about  8000  strong,  galloped  impetu- 
ously onward,  disdaining  to  wait  for  the  cooperation  of  the 
main  Hungarian  army,  with  which  King  Sigismund  moved  forward 
more  slowly.  The  French  rode  the  Turkish  irregulars  down  like 
reeds,  and  then  with  leveled  spears  they  charged  the  advanced  di- 
vision of  the  Janissaries.'^  They  broke  this  redoubtable  infantry, 
and  next  encountered  with  equal  success  the  foremost  squadrons  of 
the  Turkish  regular  cavalry  that  attempted  tcj  cover  the  retreat  of 
their  comrades.  The  triple  success  which  the  fiery  valor  of  the 
young  French  nobles  had  thus  achieved  was  splendid,  and  might 
have  led  to  a  complete  victory,  had  they  listened  to  the  sage  advice  of 
the  Sire  de  Courcy  and  the  admiral,  who  earnestly  implored  the 
Count  de  Xevers  to  order  a  halt,  and  wait  for  the  Hungarians  to 
come  up ;  or  at  least  to  give  time  enough  for  the  horses  to  recover 
their  wind,  and  for  rearranging  their  disordered  ranks.     But  carried 

'•  The  Frencli  were  obliged  to  dismount  in  order  to  break  through  the 
hedgi'  of  lances  which  prntected  tlie  front  of  the  Janissaries.  The  inedie\al 
chivalr}-  generally  dismounted  in  battle,  as,  for  example,  at  Poitiers. 


42  TURKEY 

1396 

away  by  the  excitement  of  the  strife,  and  the  intoxication  of  their 
partial  triumph,  the  French  knights  and  their  young  commander 
continued  to  chase  the  flying  Spahis,  till,  on  gaining  the  summit  of 
the  high  ground,  they  saw  before  them,  not  as  they  expected,  a 
scared  remnant  of  the  defeated  Turks,  but  a  steady  forest  of  hostile 
spears,  and  the  Sultan  himself  at  the  head  of  his  chosen  troops, 
which  soon  began  to  extend,  and  wheel  their  enclosing  lines  round 
the  scanty  band  of  the  rash  assailants.  The  Turkish  troops,  which 
they  had  defeated  in  the  first  part  of  their  advance,  had  now  rallied, 
and  formed  in  the  rear  of  the  French  knights,  cutting  off  all  hope  of 
retreat.  In  this  extremity,  charged  furiously  in  every  quarter  by 
superior  numbers,  obliged  to  combat  in  confusion  and  disorder,  and 
with  their  own  strength  and  that  of  their  horses  exhausted  by  their 
previous  efforts,  the  Christian  chevaliers  fought  on  heroically  till 
they  were  nearly  all  cut  down  or  made  prisoners.  A  few  only  made 
their  way  back  to  the  main  army  of  the  confederates,  into  which 
they  carried  the  disheartening  tidings  of  defeat.  Bayezid,  after  the 
French  were  overpowered,  restored  the  regular  formation  of  his 
troops,  and  then  moved  forward  against  King  Sigismund.  The 
two  wings  of  the  Christian  main  army  fled  at  once  without  striking 
a  blow.  The  central  division  of  Hungarians,  which  the  king  him- 
self commanded,  and  the  Bavarians  and  the  Styrians,  who  also 
were  posted  in  the  center,  stood  firm.  They  repulsed  the  Turkish 
charge,  and  advanced  in  turn  against  the  Janissaries  and  Spahis, 
forcing  these  chosen  troops  of  the  Ottomans  to  recoil,  when  they 
were  themselves  fiercely  charged  by  the  Servians,  who,  under  their 
king,  Stephen  Laserovic,  fought  as  allies  of  Bayezid  in  this  battle. 
The  overthrow  of  the  Christian  army  was  now  complete.  Sigis- 
mund's  Hungarian  division  was  almost  destroyed ;  all  the  Bavarian 
knights  and  many  of  the  Styrians  died  gloriously  around  their  stan- 
dards. King  Sigismund  and  a  few  more  of  the  leaders  escaped  with 
difficulty  from  the  field ;  but  nearly  all  the  best  and  bravest  of  the  gal- 
lant army  which  had  marched  on  that  crusade  lay  stark  on  the  bloody 
field  of  Nicopolis,  or  were  helplessly  waiting  for  the  doom  which  it 
might  please  the  triumphant  Sultan  to  pass  upon  his  captive  foes.^ 
After  the  conflict  Bayezid  fixed  his  camp  in  front  of  the  res- 
cued city  of  Nicopolis,  and  then  rode  over  the  field  of  battle.     He 

4  This  generally  accepted  account  of  the  battle  presents  certain  difficulties. 
It  is  evident  that  the  Turks  were  not  drawn  up  in  their  regular  order  of  battle, 
and  the  way  in  wliich  the  French  met  and  defeated  different  bodies,  before 
being  overwhelmed,  rather  indicates  that  the  Turks  were  attacked  in  marching 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     43 

1396 

was  enraged  to  find  from  the  number  o£  his  men  who  lay  dead  how 
dear  the  victory  had  cost  him.  He  said,  "  This  has  been  a  cruel 
battle  for  our  people :  the  Christians  have  defended  themselves  des- 
perately; but  I  will  have  this  slaughter  well  avenged  on  those  who 
are  prisoners."  Accordingly  on  the  next  morning  the  whole  Turk- 
ish army  was  drawn  up  in  the  form  of  a  crescent,  the  Sultan  being 
in  the  center.  He  commanded  the  Christian  prisoners  to  be  brought 
before  him,  and  they  were  led  out  to  the  number  of  ten  thousand, 
with  their  hands  bound  behind  them,  and  with  halters  round  their 
necks.  Among  them  was  a  youth  of  Munich,  named  Schildberger, 
who  had  gone  to  that  campaign  as  attendant  on  a  Bavarian  noble- 
man who  fell  in  the  battle.  Schildberger,  more  fortunate  than  his 
lord,  escaped  death  in  the  conflict  and  in  the  massacre  that  followed. 
He  lived  to  witness  and  to  share  the  captivity  of  his  first  captors; 
and,  after  thirty-four  years  of  slavery,  returned  to  his  home  and 
wrote  there  a  memoir  of  his  own  life,  which  is  the  most  interesting 
and  most  trustworthy  narrative  that  we  possess  of  the  campaign  of 
Nicopolis,  and  of  many  of  the  subsequent  scenes  of  Turkish  history. 
The  commander  of  the  French  chivalry,  the  Count  de  Nevers,  had 
been  taken  in  the  battle.  Bayezid  ordered  that  he  should  be  spared, 
and  permitted  him  to  select  twenty-four  more  of  the  Christian 
nobles  from  among  the  prisoners,  whose  lives  were  also  granted. 
The  Sultan  then  gave  the  signal  for  the  slaughter  of  the  rest  to 
commence;  and  the  unhappy  captives  were  led  in  detachments  be- 
fore the  royal  tent,  at  the  entrance  of  which  Bayezid  stood  with  the 
Count  de  Nevers  and  the  twenty-four  other  Christian  nobles  who 
had  been  spared,  but  who  were  forced  to  witness  tlie  fate  of  their 
comrades  and  fellow-Christians.  The  contemporaneous  chronicler 
of  chivalry,  old  Froissart,  tells  the  fate  of  the  martyred  chevaliers 
with  natural  sympathy: 

"  Many  excellent  knights  and  squires  of  France  and  other 
nations,  who  had  been  taken  in  battle  or  in  the  pursuit,  were  now 
brought  forth  in  their  shirts,  one  after  another,  before  Bayezid, 
who  eyeing  them  a  little,  they  were  led  on ;  and  as  he  made  a  signal 
were  instantly  cut  to  pieces  by  those  waiting  for  them  with  drawn 
swords.  Such  was  the  cruel  justice  of  Bayezid  this  day,  when 
upward  of  three  hundred  gentlemen  of  different  nations  were  thus 

order.  Again,  it  is  difficult  to  explain  the  tardiness  of  the  Hungarians  in  sup- 
porting the  Frencli.  A  good  recent  account  ol  this  and  many  subsequent 
battles  in  luiroj)!'  down  to  1537  '^  found  in  Ab.  Kupelweiser's  "  Kdmpfe  mit 
di'ii  Us)iia)iiii,"  Vienna,  1899. 


44  TURKEY 

1397 

pitilessly  murdered.  It  was  a  cruel  case  for  them  to  suffer  for  the 
love  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  may  He  receive  their  souls !  " 

It  is  truly  characteristic  of  Froissart  and  his  age  that  while 
he  thus  bewails  the  slaughter  which  befell  the  three  hundred 
captives  of  gentle  birth,  he  says  not  a  word  respecting  the  thou- 
sands of  the  common  soldiery  of  the  Christian  army  who  were 
massacred  at  the  same  time.  It  is  from  the  Bavarian  that  we 
learn  the  extent  and  the  cruelty  of  the  carnage  of  that  day. 
Schildberger  saw  his  comrades  cut  down  in  heaps  by  the  scim- 
itars of  the  Turkish  executioners,  or  battered  to  death  by  the 
maces  of  the  Janissaries  w^ho  were  called  forward  to  join  in  the 
bloody  work.  He  himself  was  saved  by  the  intercession  of 
Bayezid's  son,  who  was  moved  to  pity  by  the  evident  youth  of  the 
captive.  The  Count  de  Nevers  and  the  other  lords  were  ransomed 
after  a  long  captivity,  during  which  Bayezid  carried  them  about  his 
dominions  as  trophies  of  his  power  and  glory,  little  thinking  that  he 
himself  was  soon  to  drink  still  deeper  of  the  same  bitter  cup  of  de- 
feat and  shame,  and  to  furnish  a  still  more  memorable  spectacle  of 
baffled  ambition  and  fallen  pride. 

Bayezid  and  his  captives  were  at  Brusa,  in  1397,  when  the 
money  for  their  ransom  arrived.  Before  he  dismised  them  he  gave 
them  an  opportunity  of  witnessing  both  his  barbaric  magnificence 
and  his  barbaric  justice.  Froissart  thus  relates  the  haughty  leave- 
taking  which  the  Sultan  accorded  to  the  Christian  lords : 

"  When  the  Count  de  Nevers  and  the  lords  of  France  who  were 
made  prisoners  at  the  battle  of  Nicopolis  (excepting  the  Count  d'Eu 
and  the  Lord  de  Courcy,  who  had  died),  had  been  some  time  enter- 
tained by  the  Sultan,  and  had  seen  great  part  of  his  state,  he 
consented  they  should  depart,  which  was  told  them  by  those  w^ho 
had  been  ordered  to  attend  to  their  personal  wants.  The  count 
and  his  companions  waited  on  the  Sultan  in  consequence,  to  thank 
him  for  his  kindness  and  courtesy.  On  taking  his  leave,  the  Sultan 
addressed  him,  by  means  of  an  interpreter,  as  follows :  '  John,  I 
am  well  informed  that  in  thy  country  thou  art  a  great  lord,  and  son 
to  a  powerful  prince.  Thou  art  young,  and  hast  many  years  to  look 
forward  to ;  and,  as  thou  mayest  be  blamed  for  the  ill  success  of  thy 
first  attempt  in  arms,  thou  mayest  perchance,  to  shake  off  the  impu- 
tation and  regain  thine  honor,  collect  a  powerful  army  to  lead 
against  me,  and  offer  battle.  If  I  feared  thee,  I  would  make  thee 
swear,  and  likewise  thy  companions,  on  thy  faith  and  honor,  that 


CONQUESTS  IN  EUROPE  AND  ASIA  45 

1397 

neither  thou  nor  they  would  ever  bear  arms  against  me.  But  no : 
I  will  not  demand  such  an  oath :  on  the  contrary,  I  shall  be  glad  that 
when  thou  art  returned  to  thy  country,  it  please  thee  to  assemble  an 
army,  and  lead  it  thither.  Thou  wilt  always  find  me  prepared,  and 
ready  to  meet  thee  in  the  field  of  battle.  What  I  now  say,  do  thou 
repeat  to  any  person,  to  whom  it  may  please  thee  to  repeat  it;  for 
I  am  ever  ready  for,  and  desirous  of,  deeds  of  arms,  as  well  as  to 
extend  my  conquests.' 

"  These  high  words  the  Count  de  Nevers  and  his  companions 
understood  well,  and  never  forgot  them  as  long  as  they  lived."  ^ 

Nothing  indeed  could  surpass  the  arrogant  confidence  in  the 
strength  of  his  arms  with  which  Bayezid  was  inspired  by  this 
victory  over  the  chosen  warriors  of  the  Christian  nations.  It  was 
his  common  boast  that  he  would  conquer  Italy,  and  that  his  horse 
should  eat  his  oats  on  the  high  altar  of  St.  Peter's.  From  his 
capital  at  Brusa  he  sent  vaunting  messages  to  the  princes  of  Asia 
and  Egypt,  announcing  his  victory  at  Xicopolis ;  and  the  messengers 
to  each  Mohammedan  court  took  with  them  a  chosen  band  of  the 
Christians  who  had  been  taken  in  the  battle,  as  presents  from  the 
conqueror,  and  as  attesting  witnesses  of  his  exploits.  Nor  was  it 
in  words  only  that  Bayezid  showed  his  unceasing  energy  against 
the  yet  unsubdued  nations  of  the  West.  His  generals  overran 
and  devastated  Styria  and  the  south  of  Hungary;  and  the  Sultan 
himself  led  the  Turkish  armies  to  the  conquest  of  Greece.  He 
marched  through  Thessaly,  as  Xerxes  had  marched  nearly  nine- 
teen centuries  before.  But  no  modern  Leonidas  guarded  Ther- 
mopylae; and  Locris,  Phocis,  and  Bceotia  fell  almost  without  re- 
sistance into  the  Turkish  power.  Bayezid's  lieutenants  passed 
with  equal  celerity  across  the  isthmus  of  Corinth,  and  subdued  the 
whole  Peloponnesus.  Thirty  thousand  Greeks  were  removed  thence 
by  Bayezid's  order,  and  transported  into  Asia ;  and  Turkoman 
and  Tartar  colonies  were  settled  in  their  stead  in  tlie  classic  regions 
of  Laconia,  ]\Iessenia,  Achaia,  ArgoHs.  and  Elis.  Athens  was 
taken  in  1397,  and  tlie  Turkisli  Crescent  waved  over  "  The  City  of 
the  Wise,"  as  she  is  termed  by  the  Oriental  historians,  who  narrate 
the  triumpiis  of  Bayezid. 

Constantinople  had  more  than  once  been  menaced,  and  had 
been  pressed  with  actual  siege  by  Bayezid,  from  which  the  Greek 
emperor    obtained    a    temporar}-    respite    by    turning    one    of    the 

''  It   must   be    rcmciiil)cred   that   Froissart,   though   most   entertaining,    is   by 
no  means  a  trustworthy  authority. 


46  TURKEY 

1400 

churches  of  Constantinople  into  a  mosque,  and  by  binding  him- 
self to  pay  the  Sultan  an  annual  tribute  of  10,000  ducats.  But,  in 
1400  Bayezid,  no  longer  sated  in  his  ambition  with  such  conces- 
sions, commanded  the  Greek  emperor  to  surrender  his  crown  to 
him,  threatening  extermination  to  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  city 
in  case  of  refusal.  The  Byzantines  nobly  replied,  "  We  know  our 
weakness,  but  we  trust  in  the  God  of  justice,  who  protects  the 
weak  and  lowly,  and  puts  down  the  mighty  from  on  high."  Baye- 
zid was  preparing  to  execute  his  threats,  when  the  desolater  was 
laid  desolate  and  the  victor  overthrown,  not  by  any  efforts  of 
European  statesmanship  or  violence,  but  by  the  superior  might  of 
another  Asiatic  conqueror,  before  whom  the  spirit  of  the  Ottoman 
pow-er,  high  and  unmatchable  where  Timur's  was  not,  "  became 
a  Fear  as  being  overpowered." 

Timur  the  Tartar,  as  he  is  usually  termed  in  history,  was 
called  by  his  countrymen  Timur-Leng,  that  is,  Timur  the  Lame, 
from  the  effects  of  an  early  wound,  a  name  which  some  European 
writers  have  converted  into  Tamerlane,  or  Taraberlaine.  He  was 
of  Mongol  origin,  and  a  direct  descendant,  by  the  mother's  side, 
of  Genghis  Khan.  He  was  born  at  Sebzar,  a  town  near  Samar- 
kand, in  Transoxiana,  in  1336,  and  was  consequently  nearly  seventy 
years  of  age,  when  his  conquests  clashed  with  those  of  Bayezid, 
and  the  Ottoman  pow-er  was  struck  by  him  to  the  dust.  Timur's 
early  youth  was  passed  in  struggles  for  ascendency  with  the  petty 
chiefs  of  rival  tribes,  but  at  the  age  of  thirty-five  he  had  fought 
his  way  to  undisputed  preeminence,  and  was  proclaimed  Khan  of 
Zagatai  by  the  Kuraltai,  or  general  assembly  of  the  warriors  of 
his  race.  He  chose  Samarkand  as  the  capital  of  his  dominion,  and 
openly  announced  that  he  w'ould  make  that  dominion  comprise  the 
whole  inhabitable  earth.  When  he  took  possession  of  the  throne 
of  Samarkand,  he  assumed,  in  addition  to  his  name  of  Timur 
(w-hich  means  "  Iron,"  and  which  typified,  in  the  eyes  of  the  Orien- 
tals, the  resistless  might  w-ith  which  he  subdued  all  things),  the 
titles  of  the  Great  Wolf  (Gurgan),  the  Lord  of  the  Age  (Sahet 
Kiw^an),  and  Conqueror  of  the  World  (Jehargyr).  The  boastful 
appellations  of  Eastern  sovereigns  are  frequently  as  ridiculous  as 
they  are  pompous;  but  those  which  Timur  bore  were  emblems  of 
fearful  truths;  for  in  the  thirty-six  years  of  his  reign  he  raged 
over  the  world  from  the  great  wall  of  China  to  the  center  of  Russia 
on  the  north ;   and  the  Mediterranean  and  the  Nile  were  the  west- 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     47 

1400-1402 

ern  limits  of  his  career,  which  was  pressed  eastward  as  far  as  the 
sources  of  the  Ganges.  He  united  in  his  own  person  the  sovereignties 
of  twenty-seven  countries,  and  he  stood  in  the  place  of  nine  several 
dynasties  of  kings.  He  was  often  heard  to  quote  a  passage  of  an 
Eastern  poet,  which  declares  that  as  there  is  but  one  God  in  heaven, 
so  there  ought  to  be  but  one  lord  on  earth,  and  that  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  universe  could  not  satiate  the  ambition  of  one  great 
sovereign. 

Bayezid  had,  by  his  generals,  extended  the  frontier  of  his  em- 
pire in  the  east  of  Asia  Minor  during  the  three  years  that  followed 
the  battle  of  Nicopolis.  Timur's  dominions  were  already  spread  over 
Georgia  and  other  countries  west  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  so  that  a 
collision  between  these  two  great  potentates  of  the  Mohammedan 
world  became  inevitable.  Each  sheltered  the  princes  whom  the 
other  had  dethroned,  and  a  series  of  angry  complaints  and  threats 
followed,  which  soon  led  to  open  insult  and  actual  war.  The 
strong  city  of  Sivas  (the  ancient  Sebaste  in  Cappadocia)  near  the 
Armenian  frontier,  which  had  submitted  to  Bayezid,  was  the  first 
place  in  the  Ottoman  dominions  which  Timur  assailed ;  and  it 
was  by  the  tidings  of  the  fall  of  Sivas  that  Bayezid  was  recalled 
from  the  siege  of  Constantinople.  Bayezid  had  sent  Ertoghrul,  the 
bravest  of  his  sons,  with  a  chosen  force  to  protect  Sivas;  and  the 
strength  of  the  fortifications,  the  number  and  spirit  of  the  popu- 
lation, and  the  military  skill  with  which  they  were  directed,  had 
seemed  to  set  the  threats  of  its  Tartar  assailants  at  defiance.  But 
Timur  employed  thousands  of  miners  in  digging  huge  cavities 
beneath  the  foundations  of  the  city  walls,  taking  care  to  prop  up 
the  walls  with  timber  planking  and  piles  until  the  excavations  were 
complete.  When  this  was  done  the  miners  set  fire  to  the  timber, 
and  tlie  walls  sank  down  by  their  own  weight.  The  defenders  of 
Sivas  saw  their  town  and  ramparts  thus  swallowed  up  by  the 
earth  before  their  eyes,  and  implored  in  despair  the  mercy  of  the 
conqueror.  Never  had  Timur  shown  himself  so  merciless.  Four 
thousand  Christian  warriors  from  Armenia,  who  had  formed  part 
of  the  garrison,  were  buried  by  his  orders.  Prince  Ertoghrul 
and  the  Turkish  part  of  the  garrison  were  put  to  the  sword.  The 
fall  of  Sivas  delayed  that  of  Constantinople.  Bayezid  proceeded  to 
Asia  Minor  in  bitterness  of  heart  for  the  blow  that  had  been  struck 
at  his  empire,  and  in  deep  affliction  for  the  loss  of  the  best  beloved 
of  his  sons. 


48  TURKEY 

1402 

Before  he  had  reached  the  eastern  provinces  of  his  dominions 
Timiir  had  marched  southward  from  Sivas,  spreading  devastation 
far  and  wide  through  the  southern  regions  of  Asia  Minor.  An 
insult  from  the  SuUan  of  Egypt  had  drawn  the  wrath  of  the  Tartar 
conqueror  in  a  southern  direction,  and  Syria  experienced  for  two 
years  the  terror  and  the  cruelty  of  his  arms.  In  the  spring  of 
1402  Timur  marched  again  against  the  Ottomans.  A  new  inter- 
change of  letters  and  emhassies  had  taken  place  between  him  and 
Bayezid,  which  had  only  incensed  still  more  each  of  these  haughty 
conquerors  against  the  other.  But  though  professing  the  utmost 
scorn  for  his  adversary,-  Timur  knew  well  how  formidable  were 
the  Turkish  arms,  and  he  carefully  drew  together  for  this  campaign 
the  best-appointed,  as  well  as  the  most  numerous  army,  that  his 
vast  dominions  could  supply.  He  practiced  also  the  subtle  policy 
of  weakening  his  enemy  by  sowing  discontent  and  treachery  among 
Bayezid's  troops.  Timur's  secret  agents  were  sent  to  the  Ottoman 
camp,  and  urged  on  the  numerous  soldiers  of  Tartar  race  w^ho 
served  there,  that  they  ought  not  to  fight  against  Timur,  who  was 
the  true  chief  of  all  Tartar  warriors,  and  that  Bayezid  was  un- 
worthy to  command  such  brave  men.  The  efforts  of  these  spies 
and  emissaries  were  greatly  aided  by  the  dissatisfaction  which 
Bayezid's  ill-judged  parsimony  and  excessive  severity  in  discipline 
had  already  created  in  his  army.  His  best  generals  observed  the 
bad  spirit  which  was  spreading  among  the  men,  and  implored 
their  Sultan  not  to  risk  a  decisive  encounter  with  the  superior 
forces  of  Timur,  or  at  least  to  regain  the  good-will  of  his  soldiers 
by  judicious  liberality.  Bayezid  was  both  arrogant  and  avaricious ; 
he  determined  to  attack  his  enemy,  but  to  keep  back  his  treasures; 
reserving  them,  as  one  of  his  generals  bitterly  remarked,  as  cer- 
tainly for  Timur's  use,  as  if  the  Turkish  bullion  was  already  stamped 
with  Tartar  coinage.  Bayezid  advanced  with  about  120,000  men 
against  the  far  superior  forces  of  Timur,  which  w^ere  posted  near 
Sivas.  The  Mongol  emperor  did  not  immediately  encounter  the 
Ottomans,  but  maneuvered  so  as  to  ensure  that  the  battle  should 
take  place  on  ground  most  advantageous  for  the  action  of  cavalry, 
and  on  wliich  lie  could  avail  himself  most  fully  of  his  numerical 
superiority.  By  an  able  forced  march  through  Kaisyraiah  and 
Kirschehr,  he  evaded  Bayezid,  and  reached  the  city  and  plain  of 
Angora.  He  immediately  formed  the  siege  of  the  city,  knowing 
that  Bayezid  would  not  suffer  the  shame  of  letting  so  important 


CONQUESTS  IN  EUROPE  AND  ASIA  49 

1402 

a  place  fall  without  an  effort  to  relieve  it.  As  he  expected,  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  hurried  to  the  rescue  of  Angora,  and  Timur  then 
took  up  an  advantageous  position  on  the  broad  plain  of  Tchibuka- 
bad,  to  the  northwest  of  the  town.  Notwithstanding  the  immense 
preponderance  of  numbers  which  he  possessed,  the  Mongol  sov- 
ereign observed  all  military  precautions.  One  of  his  flanks  was 
protected  by  the  little  river  Tchibukabad,  which  supplies  Angora 
with  water;  on  the  other  he  had  secured  himself  by  a  ditch  and 
strong  palisade.  Bayezid,  blinded  by  his  former  successes,  seemed 
to  have  lost  all  the  generalship  which  he  usually  exhibited,  and  to 
have  been  seized  at  Angora  by  the  same  spirit  of  rashness  which 
possessed  the  Prankish  chivalry  whom  he  overthrew  five  years 
before  at  Nicopolis.  He  camped  first  to  the  north  of  Timur's  po- 
sition ;  and  then,  to  show  his  contempt  for  his  enemy,  he  marched 
his  whole  army  away  to  the  high  grounds  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  employed  them  in  a  grand  hunting.  The  troops  were  drawn 
out,  according  to  the  Asiatic  custom,  in  a  vast  circle,  enclosing  many 
miles;  and  they  then  moved  in  toward  the  center,  so  as  to  drive 
the  game  to  where  the  Sultan  and  his  of^cers  were  posted.  Un- 
fortunately the  districts  in  which  Bayezid  made  this,  his  last  chase, 
were  destitute  of  water,  and  the  sufferings  of  his  troops,  whom 
he  thus  devoted  to  the  image  of  war,  equaled  those  which  an  army 
ordinarily  endures  in  war's  stern  reality.  Five  thousand  of  the 
Ottoman  soldiers  perished  with  thirst  and  fatigue  to  promote  their 
Sultan's  fatal  sport.  After  this  imperial  folly  Bayezid  marched 
back  to  his  enemy,  but  he  found  the  camp  which  he  had  left  was 
now  occupied  by  the  Tartars,  and  that  the  only  stream  of  water 
to  which  the  Ottoman  army  could  gain  access  had  been  turned 
and  filled  up  by  Timur's  orders,  so  as  to  be  almost  unserviceable. 
Bayezid  was  thus  obliged  to  seek  a  battle,  nor  would  he  have  de- 
clined it  even  if  he  had  the  choice,  such  was  his  pride  and  confidence 
in  his  power.  On  July  20,  1402,  the  decisive  conflict  took  place. 
The  Mongol  army  is  said  to  have  exceeded  800,000  men,  and  it 
certainly  was  far  more  numerous  than  that  led  by  Bayezid,  who 
could  not  have  brought  more  than  100,000  into  the  field,'' 
and  not  only  in  numbers,  but  in  equipment,  in  zeal,  and  in  the  skill 
with  which  they  were  directed,  the  superiority  was  on  the  side  of 

^  The  well-known  figures  of  Gibbon  place  the  Turkish  army  at  300,000  and 
the  Tartar  at  600,000  men.  It  would  have  been  impossible  to  subsist  such  huge 
hosts  in  Asia  Minor  at  that  time. 


50  TURKEY 

1403 

the  Mongols.  Except  the  corps  of  Janissaries,  who  were  under  the 
Sultan's  immediate  orders,  and  the  Servian  auxiliaries,  who  fought 
gallantly  for  the  Ottomans  under  their  king,  Stephen  Laserovic, 
Bayezid's  troops  showed  little  prowess  or  soldiership  at  Angora. 
The  arts  of  Timur's  emissaries  had  been  effective;  and  when  the 
action  commenced,  large  numbers  of  the  Tartars  who  were  in 
Bayezid's  service  passed  over  to  the  ranks  of  his  enemies.  The 
contingents  of  several  of  the  Asiatic  tributary  princes  took  the 
same  course;  and  it  was  only  in  the  Ottoman  center,  where  Baye- 
zid  and  his  Janissaries  stood,  and  in  the  left  center,  where  the 
Servians  fought,  that  any  effective  resistance  was  made  to  the 
fierce  and  frequent  charges  of  the  Mongol  cavalry.  Bayezid  saw 
that  the  day  was  irreparably  lost,  but  he  rejected  the  entreaties 
of  his  officers  to  fly  while  escape  was  yet  practicable.  He  led  his 
yet  unbroken  veterans  to  some  rising  ground,  which  he  occupied 
with  them,  and  there  beat  off  all  the  attacks  of  the  enemy  through- 
out the  day.  But  his  brave  Janissaries  were  sinking  beneath  thirst, 
fatigue,  and  wounds;  and  it  was  evident  that  the  morning  would 
see  them  a  helpless  prey  to  the  myriad  enemies  who  swarmed  around 
them.  At  nightfall  Bayezid  attempted  to  escape  from  the  field, 
but  he  was  marked  and  pursued ;  his  horse  stumbled  and  fell  with 
him;  and  Mahmud,  the  Titular  Khan  of  Jagetai,  who  served  in 
Timur's  army,  had  the  glory  of  taking  the  great  Sultan  of  the 
Ottomans  prisoner.  Of  his  five  sons  who  had  been  in  the  battle, 
three  had  been  more  fortunate  than  their  father.  Prince  Suleiman 
had  escaped  toward  the  ^gean  Sea,  Prince  Mohammed  to  Amassia, 
and  Prince  Issa  toward  Carmania.  Prince  Musa  was  taken  pris- 
oner; and  the  fifth.  Prince  Mustapha,  disappeared  in  the  battle, 
nor  was  his  fate  ever  certainly  known. 

Bayezid  was  at  first  treated  by  Timur  with  respect  and  kind- 
ness; but  an  ineffectual  attempt  to  escape  incensed  the  conqueror, 
and  increased  the  rigor  of  the  Sultan's  captivity.  Thenceforth 
Bayezid  was  strictly  watched  by  a  numerous  guard,  and  was  placed 
in  fetters  every  night.  When  the  Mongol  army  moved  from  place 
to  place  Timur  took  his  captive  with  him;  but,  in  order  to  avoid 
the  hateful  sight  of  his  enemies,  Bayezid  traveled  in  a  covered  litter 
with  iron  lattice-work.  The  ignominy  which  Bayezid  underwent  was 
sufficient  to  break  a  proud  heart,  and  he  died  in  March,  1403, 
eight  months  after  tlie  battle  of  Angora.  Timur  had  sufficient 
magnanimity  to  set  at  liberty  Prince  Musa,  Bayezid's  son,  and  to 


CONQUESTS     IN     EUROPE     AND     ASIA     51 

1405 

permit  him  to  take  the  dead  body  to  Brusa  for  honorable  interment 
in  the  burial-place  of  the  Ottoman  sovereigns.  He  himself  did 
not  long  survive  his  fallen  rival.  He  died  at  Otrar  on  February  i, 
1405,  while  on  his  march  to  conquer  China.  In  the  brief  interval 
between  his  victory  at  Angora  and  his  death  he  had  poured  his 
desolating  armies  throughout  the  Ottoman  dominions  into  Asia 
Minor,  sacking  the  Turkish  cities  of  Brusa,  Nice,  Khemlik,  Akshehr, 
Karahissar,  and  many  more,  and  then  assailing  the  great  city  of 
Smyrna,  which  had  escaped  the  Ottoman  power,  and  had  been  for 
half  a  century  held  by  the  Christian  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jeru- 
salem. Timur  directed  the  siege  of  Smyrna  in  person.  In  fifteen 
days  a  mole  had  been  thrown  across  the  harbor,  which  deprived  the 
besieged  of  all  succor,  and  brought  the  Tvlongol  troops  close  to  the 
seaward  parts  of  the  city ;  large  portions  of  the  landward  walls  had 
been  undermined ;  huge  movable  towers  had  been  constructed,  from 
which  the  besiegers  boarded  the  city's  battlements,  and  Smyrna  was 
taken  by  storm,  notwithstanding  the  heroic  defense  of  the  Christian 
knights.  Timur  ordered  a  general  massacre  of  the  inhabitants 
without  mercy  to  either  age  or  sex. 

It  was  the  custom  of  the  Tartar  conqueror  to  rear  a  vast 
pyramid  of  human  heads  when  any  great  city  had  been  captured 
by  his  troops.  The  garrison  and  population  of  Smyrna  proved 
insufficient  to  supply  materials  for  one  of  these  monuments  on  his 
accustomed  scale  of  hideous  grandeur.  But  Timur  was  resolved 
not  to  leave  the  site  of  Smyrna  without  his  wonted  trophy;  and 
he  ordered  that  the  supply  of  heads  should  be  economized  by  placing 
alternate  layers  of  mud  between  the  rows  of  heads  in  the  pyramid. 
In  1404  the  conqueror  rested  for  a  short  time  from  blood-shedding, 
and  displayed  his  magnificence  in  his  capital  city  of  Samarkand, 
which  he  had  not  seen  for  seven  years.  But  the  unslaked  thirst 
of  conquest  and  slaughter  urged  him  onward  to  the  attack  of  the 
Chinese  Empire  before  the  year  was  closed ;  and  that  wealthy 
and  populous  realm  must  have  been  swept  by  his  destroying  hordes 
had  it  not  been  saved  by  the  fever  which  seized  him  at  Otrar, 
after  his  passage  of  the  river  Sihoon  on  the  ice  in  February,  1405. 
Timur  died  in  that  city,  at  the  age  of  seventy-one,  having  reigned 
thirty-six  years,  during  which  he  slied  more  blood  and  caused  more 
misery  than  any  other  human  being  that  ever  was  born  upon 
the  earth. 


Chapter    V 

THE    STRUGGLE   FOR   THE    BALKAN.     1402-1451 

THE  Ottoman  Empire,  which  during  the  fourteenth  century- 
had  acquired  such  dimensions  and  vigor,  lay  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  fifteenth  century  in  apparently  irretrievable 
ruin.  Besides  the  fatal  day  at  Angora,  when  its  veteran  army  was 
destroyed,  and  its  long-victorious  sovereign  taken  captive,  calamity 
after  calamity  had  poured  fast  upon  the  house  of  Othman,  Their 
ancient  rivals  in  Asia  Minor,  the  Seljukian  princes  of  Caramania, 
Aidian,  Kermian,  and  other  territories,  which  the  first  three  Otto- 
man sovereigns  had  conquered,  were  reinstated  by  Timur  in  their 
dominions.  In  Europe  the  Greek  Empire  accomplished  another 
partial  revival,  and  regained  some  of  its  lost  provinces.  But  the 
heaviest  and  seemingly  the  most  fatal  of  afflictions  was  the  civil 
war  which  broke  out  among  the  sons  of  Bayezid,  and  which  threat- 
ened the  utter  disintegration  and  destruction  of  the  relics  of  their 
ancestral  dominions.  At  the  time  of  Bayezid's  death,  his  eldest 
son,  Suleiman,  ruled  at  Adrianople.  The  second  son,  Prince  Issa, 
established  himself  as  an  independent  ruler  at  Brusa,  after  the 
Mongols  retired  from  Asia  Minor.  Mohammed,  the  youngest 
and  the  ablest  of  the  brothers,  formed  a  petty  kingdom  at  Amassia. 
War  soon  broke  out  between  Mohammed  and  Issa,  in  which  Mo- 
hammed was  completely  successful.  Issa  fled  to  Europe,  where 
he  sought  protection  and  aid  from  Suleiman,  who  forthwith  at- 
tacked Mohammed,  so  that  European  Turkey  and  Asiatic  Turkey 
were  now  arrayed  against  each  other.  At  first  Suleiman  was  suc- 
cessful. He  invaded  Asia  and  captured  Brusa  and  Angora. 
Meanwhile  the  other  surviving  son  of  Bayezid,  Prince  Musa,  had, 
after  his  liberation  by  Timur,  been  detained  in  custody  by  the 
Seljukian  Prince  of  Kermian,  through  whose  territories  he  was 
passing  with  the  remains  of  Bayezid,  which  he  was  to  bury  at 
Brusa.  The  interposition  of  ]\Iohammed  had  put  an  end  to  this 
detention,  and  Prince  Alusa  fought  on  ^Mohammed's  side  against 
Suleiman  in  Asia.    After  some  reverses   which  they  sustained  from 

62 


TliF.     DKATH     (IF      IIIK     Sri.r.W      SII.KIMAN      NKAR     ADRIAXOPLE 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     53 

1402-1410 

Suleiman  in  the  first  campaign,  Musa  persuaded  Mohammed  to 
let  him  cross  over  to  Europe  with  a  small  force,  and  effect  a  diver- 
sion in  Mohammed's  favor  by  attacking  the  enemy  in  his  own  ter- 
ritories. This  maneuver  soon  recalled  Suleiman  to  Europe,  where 
a  short  but  sanguinary  contest  between  him  and  Musa  ensued.  At 
first  Suleiman  had  the  advantage;  but  the  better  qualities  of  this 
prince  were  now  obscured  by  the  debasing  effects  of  habits  of  de- 
bauchery. He  treated  his  troops  with  savage  cruelty  and  heaped 
the  grossest  insults  on  his  best  generals.  The  result  was  that  his 
army  passed  over  to  the  side  of  Musa,  and  Suleiman  was  killed, 
while  endeavoring  to  escape  to  Constantinople,  in  1410. 

Musa  was  now  master  of  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  Europe, 
and  speedily  showed  that  he  inherited  a  full  proportion  both  of 
the  energy  and  of  the  ferocity  of  his  father  Bayezid.  In  an  expe- 
dition which  he  undertook  against  the  Servian  Prince,  whom  he 
accused  of  having  treacherously  aided  Suleiman  in  the  civil  war, 
he  is  said  not  only  to  have  practiced  the  customary  barbarities  of 
ravaging  the  country,  carrying  off  the  male  youth  as  captives  and 
slaughtering  the  rest  of  the  population,  but,  according  to  the 
Byzantine  writer  Ducas,  Musa  caused  the  carcasses  of  three  Servian 
garrisons  to  be  arranged  as  tables,  and  a  feast  to  be  spread  on 
them,  at  which  he  entertained  the  generals  and  chief  captains  of 
the  Ottoman  army. 

The  Greek  emperor,  Manuel  Palceologus,  had  been  the  ally  of 
Suleiman;  Alusa  therefore  attacked  him  and  besieged  his  capital. 
Palseologus  called  over  Mohammed  to  protect  him,  and  the  Asiatic 
Ottomans  now  garrisoned  Constantinople  against  the  Ottomans  of 
Europe.  ]\Iohammed  made  several  gallant  but  unsuccessful  sallies 
against  his  brother's  troops,  and  was  obliged  to  recross  the  Bos- 
phorus,  to  quell  a  revolt  that  had  broken  out  in  his  own  territories. 
]\Iusa  now  pressed  the  siege  of  the  Greek  capital ;  but  Mohammed 
speedily  returned  to  Europe,  and  obtained  the  assistance  of  Stephen, 
the  Servian  king.  The  armies  of  the  rival  Ottoman  brethren 
were  at  last  arrayed  for  a  decisive  conflict  on  the  plain  of  Chamurli, 
near  the  southern  Servian  frontier.  But  Musa  had  alienated  the 
loyalty  of  his  soldiers  by  conduct  similar  to  that  by  which  Sulei- 
man's desertion  and  destruction  had  been  caused,  while  Mohammed 
was  as  eminent  for  justice  and  kindness  toward  those  who  obeyed 
him,  as  for  valor  and  skill  against  those  who  were  his  opponents. 
When  the  two  armies  were  about  to  close  in  battle,  Hassan,  the 


64  TURKEY 

1410-1413 

Aga  of  the  Janissaries  on  the  side  of  Mohammed,  stepped  out 
before  the  ranks  and  exhorted  his  old  comrades,  who  were  on  the 
part  of  Mtisa,  to  leave  the  cause  of  a  madman  from  whom  they 
met  with  constant  outrage  and  humiliation,  and  to  range  them- 
selves among  the  followers  of  the  most  just  and  virtuous  of  the 
princes  of  the  house  of  Othman.  Enraged  at  hearing  his  troops 
thus  addressed,  Musa  rushed  against  Hassan  and  cut  him  down 
with  his  own  hand,  but  was  himself  wounded  by  an  officer  who 
had  accompanied  Hassan.  Musa  reeled  back,  bleeding,  toward 
his  own  soldiers,  who  were  seized  with  a  panic  and  broke  their 
ranks,  and  fled  in  all  directions.  Musa  endeavored  to  escape,  but 
was  found  by  the  pursuers  lying  dead  in  a  marsh  near  the  field 
where  the  armies  had  met.  His  death  ended  the  war  of  succession 
in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  for  Prince  Issa  had  disappeared  some 
years  before,  during  the  hostilities  between  Suleiman  and  Mo- 
hammed in  Asia,  and  Mohammed  w'as  now,  after  Musa's  death, 
the  sole  known  surviving  son  of  Bayezid. 

Sultan  Mohammed  I.  w-as  surnamed  by  his  subjects  Pehlevan, 
which  means  the  Champion,  on  account  of  his  personal  activity 
and  prowess.  His  graciousness  of  disposition  and  manner,  his 
magnanimity,  his  love  of  justice  and  truth,  and  his  eminence  as  a 
discerning  patron  of  literature  and  art,  obtained  for  him  also  the 
still  more  honorable  title  of  Tschelebi,  which,  according  to  Von 
Hammer,  expresses  precisely  the  same  idea  which  is  conveyed  by 
the  English  word  "  gentleman."  Other  Turkish  sovereigns  have 
acquired  more  celebrity;  but  Mohammed,  the  Champion  and  the 
Gentleman,  deserves  to  be  cited  as  one  of  the  noblest  types  of  the 
Ottoman  race.  His  humanity  and  his  justice  are  attested  by 
Greek  as  well  as  by  Oriental  historians.  He  was  through  life  the 
honorable  and  firm  ally  of  the  Byzantine  emperor. 

After  the  fall  of  Musa,  Mohammed  received  at  Adrianople 
the  ready  homage  of  the  European  subjects  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire, and  the  felicitations  of  the  neighboring  rulers.  The  emperor 
Palseologus  and  Mohammed  had  reciprocally  aided  each  other 
against  Musa;  and  Mohammed  honorably  showed  his  gratitude 
and  good  faith  by  restoring,  according  to  promise  to  the  Greek 
Empire,  the  strong  places  on  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Propontis,  and 
the  Thessalian  fortress  which  had  been  previously  wrested  from 
it  by  the  Turks.  A  treaty  of  amity  was  also  concluded  between 
the  Sultan  and  tlie  Venetians. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     55 

1410-1413 

A  brief  season  of  unusual  calm  was  thus  obtained  for  the 
countries  westward  of  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Hellespont;  but 
Asia  was  seething  with  insurrection  and  war,  and  Mohammed  was 
speedily  obliged  to  quit  his  feast  of  peace  at  Adrianople  to  recon- 
quer and  secure  the  ancient  possessions  of  his  house.  The  im- 
portant city  of  Smyrna  and  the  adjacent  territory  were  at  this 
period  commanded  by  an  Ottoman  governor  of  the  name  of 
Djouneid,  who  had  resumed  possession  of  them  after  the  Mongols 
had  withdrawn  from  Asia  Minor,  and  who  had  succeeded  after- 
ward in  making  himself  also  master  of  the  principality  of  Aidin. 
Djouneid  had  submitted  first  to  Suleiman,  and  afterward  to  Mo- 
hammed, as  his  Sultan;  but  during  the  last  civil  war  he  had 
openly  revolted  against  Mohammed,  and  he  now  aspired  to  make 
himself  an  independent  sovereign.  At  the  same  time  the  Prince 
of  Caramania  had  taken  advantage  of  the  absence  of  Mohammed 
and  his  best  troops  from  Asia  to  attack  the  very  heart  of  the 
Ottoman  Asiatic  dominions,  and  had  laid  siege  to  Brusa.  The 
city  was  well  garrisoned,  and  held  out  firmly  against  him;  but  he 
burned  to  the  ground  the  mosques  and  other  public  buildings  of  the 
suburbs ;  and,  in  the  rage  of  his  heart  against  the  race  of  Othman, 
he  ordered  the  tomb  of  Bayezid,  which  was  outside  the  city  walls, 
to  be  opened,  and  the  remains  of  that  Sultan  to  be  given  to  the 
flames.  While  the  Caramanians  were  thus  engaged  in  profaning 
the  sanctuaries  of  their  own  creed,  and  in  violating  the  repose  of 
the  dead,  they  suddenly  saw  approaching  them  from  the  west  the 
funeral  procession  of  Prince  Musa,  whose  body  had  been  borne  by 
Mohammed's  orders  from  Europe  to  Asia  for  burial  in  the  mosque 
of  Murad  at  Brusa.  The  besiegers  were  panic-stricken  at  this 
unexpected  spectacle;  and  the  Carmanian  prince,  thinking  pos- 
sibly that  Sultan  Mohammed  with  an  army  was  close  at  hand,  or 
perhaps  seized  with  remorse  and  ghostly  terror  at  the  sepulchral 
apparition,  fled  from  Brusa,  unchecked  by  the  bitter  reproach  of 
one  of  his  own  followers,  who  said  to  him,  "  If  thou  fliest  be- 
fore the  dead  Ottoman,  how  wilt  thou  stand  against  the  living 
one?" 

The  Sultan,  when  he  had  crossed  over  from  Europe  to  Asia 
with  his  forces,  marched  first  against  his  rebellious  vassal.  He 
besieged  Smyrna  and  compelled  it  to  surrender;  and  Djouneid 
was  soon  reduced  to  beg  for  mercy,  which  Mohammed,  moved  by 
the  tears  of  the   fallen  rebel's  family,    accorded    him.      He  then 


66  TURKEY 

1413-1416 

marched  against  the  Caramanians.  He  captured  many  towns  in 
person ;  but  was  obh'ged  to  leave  his  army  by  a  sudden  and  severe 
malady  which  baffled  the  skill  of  all  his  physicians  save  one,  the 
celebrated  Sinan,  who  prescribed  the  news  of  a  victory  as  the  best 
medicine  that  the  Sultan  could  receive.  His  favorite  general, 
Bayezid  Pasha,  soon  supplied  the  desired  remedy  by  completely 
defeating  the  Caramanians  and  taking  their  prince,  Mustapha  Beg, 
prisoner.  Mohammed  recovered  his  health  at  the  joyous  intel- 
ligence of  this  success.  The  Caramanians  now  sued  for  peace, 
which  the  Ottoman  Sultan  generously  granted.  The  captive 
Caramanian  prince  in  Mohammed's  presence  placed  his  right  hand 
within  the  robe  on  his  own  bosom,  and  solemnly  pronounced  the 
oath,  "  I  swear  that  so  long  as  there  is  breath  in  this  body  I  will 
never  attack  or  covet  the  Sultan's  possessions."  Mohammed  set 
him  at  liberty  with  every  mark  of  honor;  but  while  he  was  yet  in 
sight  of  the  conqueror's  camp,  the  prince,  who  held  that  between 
the  Caramanians  and  the  Ottomans  war  ought  to  reign  from  the 
cradle  to  the  grave,  commenced  marauding  on  some  of  the  herds 
that  were  grazing  on  the  plain  round  him.  His  officers  reminded 
him  of  the  oath  which  he  had  just  taken;  but  he  drew  from  his 
bosom  a  dead  pigeon  squeezed  tightly  in  his  right  hand,  and  sar- 
castically repeated  the  words  of  his  oath,  "  So  long  as  there  shall 
be  breath  in  this  body." 

Incensed  at  this  perfidy,  Mohammed  renewed  the  war,  and 
gained  great  advantages;  but  he  again  was  generous  enough  to 
grant  peace  on  the  reiterated  entreaties  of  the  Caramanians,  They 
had  received  such  severe  blows  in  the  last  war  that  terror  now 
kept  them  quiet  for  several  years,  and  the  Asiatic  dominions  of  the 
Sultan  enjoyed  peace  and  tranquillity,  which  ^lohammed  further 
secured  by  entering  into  friendly  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
various  princes  of  upper  Asia,  so  as  to  avert  further  invasions 
like  those  of  Timur. 

On  his  return  to  Europe,  in  141 6,  Mohammed  became  involved 
in  a  war  with  the  Venetians.  The  petty  lords  of  many  of  the 
islands  of  the  ^gean  Sea  were  nominal  vassals  of  the  republic  of 
Venice;  but,  in  disregard  of  the  treaty  between  that  power  and  the 
Sultan,  they  continued  to  capture  the  Turkish  shipping  and  to 
plunder  the  Turkish  coasts.  Mohammed  fitted  out  a  squadron  of 
galleys  to  retaliate  for  their  injuries,  and  this  led  to  an  encounter 
with  the   Venetian   fleet,   which,   under  tlieir   admiral,   Loredano, 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     67 

1416-1421 

completely  defeated  the  Turks  off  Gallipoli  on  May  29,  1416. 
Peace  was  soon  restored;  and  a  Turkish  ambassador  appeared 
at  Venice  in  the  same  year,  with  a  new  treaty  between  his 
master  and  the  repubHc.  Mohammed's  troops  sustained  some 
severe  reverses  in  expeditions  undertaken  against  Styria  and  Hun- 
gary, between  1416  and  1420;  but  no  very  important  hostilities  were 
waged  between  him  and  his  neighbors  in  European  Christendom. 
A  far  more  serious  peril  to  the  Sultan  was  a  revolt  of  the  der- 
vishes, which  broke  out  both  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  was  only 
quelled  by  the  Sultan's  troops  after  several  sanguinary  battles. 
This  insurrection  was  organized  by  the  judge  of  the  army,  Bed- 
reddin,  aided  by  an  apostate  Jew,  named  Tirlak.  The  nominal 
chief  of  the  fanatics  was  a  Turk  of  low  birth,  named  Baerekludye 
Mustapha,  whom  they  proclaimed  as  their  spiritual  lord  and  father. 
All  these  three  perished  either  in  battle  or  by  the  executioner,  and 
their  sect  was  extinguished  with  them. 

After  this  formidable  peril  had  passed  away  Mohammed  was 
called  on  to  defend  his  throne  from  another  domestic  enemy.  It 
has  been  mentioned  that  one  of  Bayezid's  sons.  Prince  Mustapha, 
who  was  present  on  the  day  of  Angora,  disappeared  after  the  de- 
feat of  the  Turks  in  that  battle.  His  body  was  not  found  among 
the  slain,  though  Timur  caused  diligent  search  to  be  made  for  it; 
nor  was  the  mode  of  his  escape  (if  he  escaped)  ever  ascertained. 
Certain  it  is  that,  in  1420,  a  claimant  to  the  Ottoman  sovereignty 
appeared  in  Europe  who  asserted  that  he  was  Mustapha,  the  son 
of  Sultan  Bayezid,  and  who  was  recognized  as  such  by  many  of 
the  Turks.  Supported  by  the  Prince  of  Wallachia,  and  by 
Djouneid,  the  old  rebel  against  Mohammed,  the  pretender  pene- 
trated into  Thessaly  with  a  large  army.  Mohammed  met  him  with 
his  customary  vigor,  and  a  pitched  battle  was  fought  near  Salonica, 
in  which  the  claimant  was  utterly  defeated  and  fled  for  protection 
to  the  Greek  commandant  of  that  city.  The  Byzantine  emperor 
refused  to  surrender  the  suppliant  fugitive,  but  consented  to  keep 
him  in  strict  custody  on  condition  of  Mohammed  paying  annually 
a  large  sum  of  money,  ostensibly  for  the  captive's  maintenance,  but 
in  reality  as  the  wages  for  his  imprisonment. 

Mohammed  I.  was  but  forty-seven  years  of  age  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  and  his  reign  as  Sultan  of  the  reunited  empire  had  lasted 
only  eight  years.  The  news  of  his  death  was  concealed  from  the 
public  for  more  than  forty  days,  while  intelligence  of  the  event  was 


68  TURKEY 

1421-1422 

sent  to  Prince  Murad.  who  at  the  time  of  his  father's  illness  held  a 
command  on  the  frontiers  of  Asia  Minor. 

Murad  II.,  when  called  from  his  viceroyalty  in  Asia  Minor 
to  become  the  sovereign  of  the  Turkish  Empire,  was  only  eighteen 
years  of  age.  He  was  solemnly  recognized  as  Sultan,  and  girt  with 
the  saber  of  Othman  at  Brusa ;  and  the  troops  and  officers  of  state 
paid  willing  homage  to  him  as  their  sovereign.  But  his  reign  was 
soon  troubled  by  insurrection.  The  Greek  emperor,  despising  the 
youth  of  Murad,  released  the  pretender  Mustapha  from  confinement, 
and  acknowledged  him  as  the  legitimate  heir  to  the  throne  of  Baye- 
zid,  having  first  stipulated  with  him  that  he  should,  if  successful, 
repay  the  Greek  emperor  for  his  liberation  by  the  cession  of  a  large 
number  of  important  cities.  The  pretender  was  landed  by  the  By- 
zantine galleys  in  the  European  dominions  of  the  Sultan,  and  for  a 
time  made  rapid  progress.  Large  bodies  of  the  Turkish  soldiery 
joined  him,  and  he  defeated  and  killed  the  veteran  general  Bayezid 
Pasha,  whom  Murad  first  sent  against  him.  He  then  crossed  the 
Dardanelles  to  Asia  with  a  large  army,  but  the  young  Sultan 
showed  in  this  emergency  that  he  possessed  military  and  political 
abilities  worthy  of  the  best  of  his  ancestors.  Mustapha  was  out- 
maneuvered  in  the  field ;  and  his  troops,  whose  affection  to  his  person 
and  confidence  in  his  cause  he  had  lost  by  his  violence  and  incapacity, 
passed  over  in  large  numbers  to  Murad.  Mustapha  took  refuge  in 
the  strong  city  of  Gallipoli,  but  the  Sultan,  who  was  greatly  aided 
by  a  Genoese  commandant  named  Adorno,  besieged  him  there  and 
stormed  the  place.  Mustapha  was  taken  and  put  to  death  ;  and  the 
Sultan  then  turned  his  arms  against  the  Greek  emperor,  and  declared 
his  resolution  to  punish  the  unprovoked  enmity  of  Palseologus  by 
the  capture  of  Constantinople. 

The  embassies,  charged  with  abject  apology,  by  w^hich  the 
Greeks  now  sought  to  appease  the  Sultan's  wrath,  were  dismissed 
W'ith  contempt;  and  in  the  beginning  of  June,  1422,  Murad  was  be- 
fore the  trembling  capital  with  20,000  of  his  best  troops.  Ten 
thousand  of  the  dreaded  Akindji.  under  their  hereditary  com- 
mander, jVIichael  Beg,  had  previously  been  let  loose  by  the  Sultan 
upon  the  lands  which  the  Greek  emperor  yet  retained  beyond  the  city 
walls,  and  had  spread  fire  and  desolation  through  the  doomed  ter- 
ritory, without  any  attempt  being  made  by  the  Byzantines  to  check 
or  to  avenge  their  ra\ages.  ]\Iurad's  own  army  seemed  still  more 
irresistible,  and  the  Sultan  carried  on  the  siege  with  a  degree  of 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     59 

1422-1424 

skill,  as  well  as  vigor,  rarely  to  be  found  in  the  military  operations 
of  that  age.  He  formed  a  line  of  embankment  only  a  bowshot  from 
the  city  wall,  and  extended  it  from  the  sea  to  the  Golden  Horn,  so 
as  to  face  the  whole  landward  side  of  the  city.  This  rampart  was 
formed  of  strong  timber,  with  a  thick  mound  of  earth  heaped  up 
along  its  front ;  and  it  received  uninjured  the  discharges  of  firearms 
and  the  shocks  of  the  heaviest  stones  that  the  balistas  of  the  Greeks 
could  hurl  against  it.  Under  cover  of  this  line  Murad's  army  urged 
on  the  work  of  attack.  Movable  towers  were  built  to  convey  storm- 
ing parties  to  the  summits  of  the  city  wall ;  mines  were  laboriously 
pushed  forward,  and  breaching  cannon  were  now  for  the  first  time 
employed  by  the  Ottomans,  but  with  little  effect.  Wishing  to  in- 
crease the  zeal  and  the  number  of  the  assailants,  Murad  proclaimed 
that  the  city  and  all  its  treasures  should  be  given  up  to  the  true  be- 
lievers who  would  storm  it,  and  crowds  of  fanatic  volunteers  flocked 
to  the  camp  to  share  in  the  harvest  of  piety  and  plunder.  Among 
the  recruits  were  a  large  number  of  dervishes,  headed  by  a  renowned 
saint  named  Seid  Bokhari,  who  announced  the  day  and  the  hour  at 
which  it  was  fated  for  him  to  lead  the  Mohammedans  to  the  capture 
of  Constantinople.  Accordingly,  at  the  appointed  time,  one  hour 
after  noon  on  Monday,  August  25,  1422,  Seid  Bokhari  led  on 
the  Ottoman  army  to  the  assault.  Five  hundred  dennshes,  who 
had  stipulated  that  the  Christian  nuns  of  Constantinople  should  be 
assigned  as  their  particular  share  of  the  booty,  formed  the  forlorn 
hope  of  the  stormers.  The  Ottomans  attacked  vehemently,  and  the 
Greeks  resisted  steadily  along  the  whole  length  of  the  city  wall;  but 
it  was  near  the  gate  of  St.  Romanus  that  the  combat  raged  most 
fiercely. 

The  Christians  as  well  as  the  Mohammedans  were  animated 
by  religious  enthusiasm,  and  by  the  assurance  that  their  arms 
were  aided  by  the  interposition  of  supernatural  power.  At  last  some 
said  that  they  beheld,  and  all  believed  that  there  was  seen  on  the 
outer  bastions,  a  bright  apparition  of  a  virgin  robed  in  garments  of 
violet  hue  and  dazzling  luster,  whose  looks  darted  panic  amid  the 
assailing  columns.  This  was  the  Panagia,  the  Holy  Virgin,  who 
had  descended  for  the  special  protection  of  the  sacred  maids  of  the 
Christian  city  from  tlie  boastful  impiety  of  the  monks  of  Moham- 
med. The  besiegers  themselves  (not  unwilling  perhaps  to  find  some 
pretext  for  their  defeat,  besides  the  strength  of  the  fortifications  and 
the  bravery  of  tlie  defenders)  ga\e  credit  and  confirmation  to  tliis 


60  TURKEY 

1424-1430 

legend.  It  is  certain  that  the  attack  failed,  and  that  the  siege  was 
soon  afterward  raised. 

In  1424  Mnrad  returned  to  Europe,  having  reestablished  per- 
fect order  in  his  Asiatic  provinces,  and  chastised  the  neighboring 
sovereigns  who  had  promoted  hostilities  against  him.  Murad  did 
not  renew  the  siege  of  Constantinople,  but  accepted  a  treaty  by  which 
the  Greek  emperor  bound  himself  to  pay  an  annual  tribute  of  30,000 
ducats  to  the  Sultan,  and  surrendered  the  city  of  Zeitoun  (Lysima- 
chia)  and  all  the  other  remaining  Greek  cities  on  the  River  Strania 
(Strymon)  and  the  Black  Sea,  except  Selymbria  and  Derkos. 

In  1430  Murad  besieged  and  captured  the  important  city  of 
Thessalonica,  which  had  thrown  off  its  allegiance  to  the  emperor, 
and  placed  itself  under  the  protection  of  the  Venetians,  who  were 
at  that  time  in  enmity  with  the  Sultan.  Other  accessions  of  power 
in  the  same  quarter,  and  successful  hostilities  with  various  Asiatic 
princes,  are  recorded  in  the  detailed  narratives  of  the  acts  of  Murad ; 
but  the  main  feature  of  the  reign  of  this  great  Sultan  is  his  long 
contest  with  the  warlike  nations  on  the  northern  and  western  fron- 
tiers of  his  European  dominions,  a  struggle  marked  by  many  vicissi- 
tudes, and  which  called  forth  into  energetic  action  the  high  qualities 
of  Murad  himself,  and  also  of  his  renowned  opponents,  Hunyady, 
the  hero  of  Hungary,  and  Scanderbeg,  the  champion  of  Albania. 

We  have  seen  how  valuable  to  the  Turkish  Empire,  in  its  season 
of  disaster,  after  the  overthrow  of  Sultan  Bayezid,  was  the  steady 
fidelity  and  friendship  with  which  the  Lord  of  Servia,  Stephen  La- 
serovic,  adhered  to  his  engagements  with  the  house  of  Othman. 
That  prince  died  in  1427,  and  his  successor,  George  Brankovic, 
who  was  bound  by  no  personal  ties,  like  those  of  his  predecessor, 
to  the  interest  of  the  Ottomans,  resolved  to  check  their  further  prog- 
ress. The  Hungarians  also,  whom  the  recollection  of  dreadful  de- 
feat at  Nicopolis  had  kept  inactive  during  the  temporary  dismember- 
ment and  feebleness  of  the  power  which  had  smitten  them,  now  felt 
their  martial  confidence  in  their  own  p-rowess  revive;  and  their  jeal- 
ousy of  the  growth  of  the  Turkish  dominion  was  reawakened.  More- 
over, the  Bosnians,  who  saw  their  country  gradually  overrun  from 
the  military  frontier  on  which  the  Ottomans  had  established  them- 
selves at  Supi,  and  the  Albanians,  who  beheld  their  strong  places, 
Argyro-castrum  and  Croia,  in  Murad's  possession,  were  conscious 
that  tlieir  national  independence  was  in  danger,  and  were  favor- 
ably disposed  for  action  against  the  common  foe.     Wallachia  was 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     61 

1430-1442 

eager  for  liberation ;  and  the  unsleeping  hatred  of  the  Caramanians 
to  the  Ottomans  made  it  easy  for  the  Christian  antagonists  of  the 
Sultan  in  Europe  to  distract  his  arms  by  raising  war  and  insurrec- 
tion against  him  in  Asia.  Yet  there  was  for  several  years  no 
general  and  vigorous  confederation  against  the  Sultan,  and  a 
checkered  series  of  partial  hostilities  and  negotiations  filled  nearly 
twenty  years,  during  which  the  different  Christian  neighbors  of 
the  Sultan  were  sometimes  his  antagonists  and  sometimes  his  allies 
against  each  other.  At  last  the  accession  of  Ladislaus,  the  third 
King  of  Lithuania  and  Poland,  to  the  crown  of  Hungary,  brought 
fresh  strength  and  enterprise  to  the  Sultan's  foes,  and  a  severe 
struggle  followed  which,  after  threatening  the  utter  expulsion  of 
the  house  of  Othman  from  Europe,  confirmed  for  centuries  its 
dominion  in  that  continent,  and  wrought  the  heavier  subjugation 
of  those  who  were  then  seeking  to  release  themselves  from  its 
superiority. 

In  1442  Murad  was  repulsed  from  Belgrade,  and  his  generals 
who  were  besieging  Hermanstadt,  in  Transylvania,  met  with  a 
still  more  disastrous  reverse.  It  was  at  Hermanstadt  that  the 
renowned  Hunyady  first  appeared  in  the  wars  between  the  Hun- 
garians and  the  Turks.  In  his  early  youth  he  gained  distinction 
in  the  wars  of  Italy;  and  Comines  in  his  memoirs  celebrates  him 
under  the  name  of  the  White  Knight  of  Wallachia.  After  some 
campaigns  in  Western  Christendom,  Hunyady  returned  to  protect 
his  native  country  against  the  Ottomans;  and  in  1442  he  led  a 
small  but  chosen  force  to  the  relief  of  Hermanstadt.  He  planned 
his  movements  ably;  and  aided  by  an  opportune  sally  of  the  gar- 
rison, he  completely  defeated  ]\Iezid  Beg,  the  Turkish  general, 
killing  many  of  his  troops,  and  taking  prisoner  jNIezid  Beg  himself, 
his  son,  and  many  more.  Hunyady  was  no  whit  inferior  to  the 
fiercest  Turkish  generals  in  crucliy.  i\Iezid  Beg  and  his  son  were 
hewn  to  pieces  in  his  presence,  and  one  of  the  chief  entertainments 
at  the  triumphal  feast  of  the  victorious  Hungarians  was  to  see 
captive  Turks  slaughtered  during  the  baiKjuet. 

Murad  sent  Shehaddedin  Pasha  with  an  army  of  80,000 
men  against  Hunyady  to  avenge  this  disgrace.  But  the  "  White 
Knight,"  as  tlie  Christians  called  Hunyady,  from  the  color  of 
his  armor,  met  Shehadeddin  at  Vasog,  and,  though  his  numbers 
were  far  inferior,  utterly  routed  the  'J'urks  with  e\"en  heavier  loss 
than    they   had   sustained   before    Hermanstadt.      The    next   year. 


62  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1443 

1443,  is  the  most  illustriotis  in  the  career  of  Hunyady,  and  brought 
the  Ottoman  power  to  the  very  brink  of  ruin.  The  Servian,  the 
Bosnian,  and  the  Wallachian  princes  were  now  actively  coopera- 
ting with  King  Ladislaus  against  the  Sultan ;  and  an  attack  of  the 
Caramanians  on  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  Asia  compelled  Murad 
to  pass  over  to  that  continent  and  carry  on  the  war  there  in  per- 
son, while  he  left  to  his  generals  the  defense  of  his  empire  in 
Europe  against  the  Hungarians  and  their  allies. 

The  Christian  army  that  invaded  European  Turkey  in  the 
remarkable  campaign  of  this  year  was  the  most  splendid  that  had 
been  assembled  since  the  French  chivalry  and  the  Hungarians 
advanced  against  Bayezid  at  Nicopolis;  and  it  was  guided  by  the 
ablest  general  that  Christendom  had  yet  produced  against  the 
house  of  Othman,  The  fame  of  Hunyady  had  brought  volunteers 
from  all  the  nations  of  the  West  to  serve  under  him  in  the  holy 
war  against  the  Mohammedans;  and  the  most  earnest  efforts 
of  Pope  Eugenius  and  his  legate,  Cardinal  Julian,  had  been  de- 
voted to  give  to  these  champions  of  their  faith  the  enthusiasm 
as  well  as  the  name  of  crusaders.  The  main  body  of  the  confed- 
erates, consisting  chiefly  of  Hungarian,  Servian,  Wallachian,  and 
German  troops,  crossed  the  Danube  near  Semendria.  Hunyady, 
at  the  head  of  12,000  chosen  cavalry,  then  pushed  forward  nearly 
to  the  walls  of  Nissa.  King  Ladislaus  and  the  Cardinal  Julian 
followed  him  with  the  Polish  and  part  of  the  Hungarian  troops, 
and  with  the  crusaders  from  Italy.  On  November  3,  Hunyady  won 
the  first  battle  of  the  campaign  on  the  banks  of  the  Morava,  near 
Nissa.  The  grand  army  of  the  Turks  was  beaten,  and  fled  beyond 
the  Balkan,  with  the  loss  of  nine  standards,  4000  jirisoners,  and 
many  thousand  slain.  Hunyady  followed  close  upon  the  foe,  cap- 
tured the  city  of  Sophia,  and  then  prepared  to  cross  the  Balkan,  and 
advance  upon  Philippopolis. 

The  passage  of  the  Balkan  is  an  exploit  almost  as  rare  in 
military  history  as  those  passages  of  the  Alps  that  have  conferred 
so  much  luster  on  Hannibal,  Charlemagne,  and  Napoleon.  Alex- 
ander forced  the  barrier  of  the  Balkan  in  335  b.  c,  probably 
through  the  same  pass  which  Hunyady  penetrated  from  the  oppo- 
site direction  in  1443  a.  d.  Murad  I.  crossed  the  Balkan  in  1390; 
and  the  Russian  general,  Diebitsch,  forced  this  renowned  moun- 
tain chain  near  its  eastern  extremity  in  1827.  Hunyady  and  Die- 
bitsch are  the  only  two  commanders  who  have  crossed  it   from 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     63 

1443-1444 

north  to  south,  in  spite  of  armed  opposition;  and  the  fact  of  their 
accomphshing-  that  exploit  against  the  same  enemy  (though  with 
an  interval  of  nearly  four  centuries),  and  the  splendor  of  the  suc- 
cess which  each  thereby  obtained  over  the  Ottoman  power,  make 
the  similitude  between  their  achievements  more  remarkable.^ 

Two  defiles,  the  openings  of  which  on  the  northern  side  are 
near  each  other,  one  to  the  west  named  the  defile  of  Soulourder- 
bend,  the  other  to  the  east  that  of  Isladi,  or  Slatiza,  lead  through 
the  Balkan  on  the  road  from  Sophia  to  Philipoppolis.  The  Turks, 
who  defended  the  passage  against  Hunyady,  had  barricaded  both 
these  defiles  with  heaps  of  rocks;  and  when  they  found  the  Hun- 
garian vanguard  approach,  they  poured  water  throughout  the  night 
down  the  mountain  slope,  which  froze  as  it  fell,  and  formed  at 
morning  a  wall  of  ice  against  the  Christians.  Undaunted  by  these 
obstacles  and  the  weapons  of  the  enemy,  Hunyady  encouraged 
his  men  by  voice  and  example  to  clamber  onward  and  through 
the  western  defile,  until  they  reached  a  part  where  the  old  Roman 
works  of  Trajan  completely  barred  the  way.  The  Hungarians 
retreated,  but  it  was  only  to  advance  up  the  eastern  defile,  which 
was  less  perfectly  fortified. 

There,  through  the  rest  of  the  winter's  day,  Hunyady  and  his 
chivalry  fought  their  gallant  upward  battle  against  Turkish  arrow 
and  scimitar,  amid  the  still  more  formidable  perils  of  the  precipice, 
the  avalanche,  the  whelming  snowdrift,  and  the  bitter  paralyzing 
cold.  They  triumphed  over  all;  and  the  Christmas  day  of  1443 
was  celebrated  by  the  exulting  Hungarians  on  the  snow-plains  of 
the  southern  slopes  of  the  conquered  Balkan. 

Murad  had  been  personally  successful  in  Asia ;  but  the  defeats 
which  his  forces  had  sustained  in  Europe,  and  the  strength  of  the 
confederacy  there  formed  against  him,  filled  him  with  grave  alarm. 
He  sought  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  more  remote  conquests  of  his 
house  to  secure  for  the  rest  of  his  European  dominions  the  same 
tranquillity  which  he  had  reestablished  in  the  Asiatic,  After  a 
long  negotiation  a  treaty  of  peace  for  ten  years  was  concluded  at 
Szegedin  on  July  12,  1444,  by  which  the  Sultan  resigned  all  claims 
upon  Servia  and  recognized  George  Brankovic  as  its  independent 
sovereign.  Wallachia  was  given  up  to  Hungary;  and  the  Sultan 
paid  60,000  ducats  for  the  ransom  of  ]\Iahmud  Tchelebi,  his  son- 

1  The  same  feat  was  again  performed  by  the  Russians  in  the  late  Russo- 
Turki-,h  war,  1877-187S. 


64  TURKEY 

1444 

in-law,  who  had  commanded  against  Hunyady ;  and  had  been  taken 
prisoner  in  the  late  campaign.  The  treaty  was  written  both  in  the 
Hungarian  and  in  the  Turkish  languages;  King  Ladislaus  swore 
upon  the  Gospels  and  the  Sultan  swore  upon  the  Koran  that  it 
should  be  truly  and  religiously  observed. 

Murad  now  thought  that  his  realm  was  at  peace,  and  that  he 
himself,  after  so  many  years  of  anxiety  and  toil,  might  hope  to 
taste  the  blessings  of  repose.  We  have  watched  him  hitherto  as 
a  man  of  action,  and  we  have  found  ample  reason  to  admire  his 
capacity  and  vigor  in  council  and  in  the  field.  But  Murad  had 
also  other  virtues  of  a  softer  order,  which  are  not  often  to  be  found 
in  the  occupant  of  an  Oriental  throne.  He  was  gentle  and  affec- 
tionate in  all  the  relations  of  domestic  life.  Instead  of  seeking 
to  assure  his  safety  by  the  death  of  the  two  younger  brothers,  for 
whose  fate  their  father  had  been  so  anxious,  Murad  treated  them 
with  kindness  and  honor  while  they  lived,  and  bitterly  lamented 
their  loss  when  they  died  of  the  plague  in  their  palace  at  Brusa. 
The  other  brother,  who  took  up  arms  against  him,  was  killed  with- 
out his  orders.  He  forgave,  for  the  sake  of  a  sister  who  was 
married  to  the  Prince  of  Kermian,  the  treasonable  hostility  with 
which  that  vassal  of  the  house  of  Othman  assailed  him;  and  the 
tears  of  another  sister  for  the  captivity  of  her  husband,  Mahmud 
Tchelebi,  and  her  entreaties  that  he  might  be  rescued  from  the 
power  of  the  terrible  Hunyady,  were  believed  to  have  prevailed 
much  in  causing  Murad  to  seek  the  pacification  of  Szegedin. 
When  that  treaty  was  concluded  Murad  passed  over  to  Asia, 
where  he  met  the  deep  affliction  of  learning  the  death  of  his  eldest 
son.  Prince  Alaeddin,  who  had  shared  with  him  the  command  of 
the  Ottoman  forces  in  Asia  during  the  operations  of  the  preceding 
year.  The  bitterness  of  this  bereavement  increased  the  distaste 
which  Murad  had  already  acquired  for  the  pomp  and  turmoil  of 
sovereignty.  He  determined  to  abdicate  the  throne  in  favor  of 
his  second  son,  Prince  Mohammed,  and  to  pass  the  rest  of  his  life 
in  retirement  at  Magnesia.  But  it  was  not  in  austere  privation, 
or  in  tlie  fanatic  exercises  of  iMohammedan  monasticism,  that 
Murad  designed  his  private  life  to  be  wasted.  He  was  no  con- 
temner of  the  pleasures  of  sense;  and  the  scene  of  his  retreat  was 
amply  furnished  with  all  the  ministry  of  every  delight. 

'I  he  tidings  of  warfare  renewed  by  the  Christian  powers  soon 
roused  tlie  bold  Paynim,  like  Spenser's  Cymocles,  from  his  Bower 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     65 

1444 

of  Bliss.  The  King  of  Hting-ary  and  his  confederates  had  recom- 
menced hostihties  in  a  spirit  of  treachery  that  quickly  received  its 
just  reward.  Within  a  month  from  the  signature  of  the  treaty  of 
Szegedin  the  Pope  and  the  Greek  emperor  had  persuaded  the 
King  of  Hungary  and  his  councilors  to  take  an  oath  to  break  the 
oath  which  had  been  pledged  to  the  Sultan.  They  represented 
that  the  confessed  weakness  of  the  Ottomans,  and  the  retirement 
of  Murad  to  Asia,  gave  an  opportunity  for  eradicating  the  Turks 
from  Europe,  which  ought  to  be  fully  employed.  The  Cardinal 
Julian  pacified  the  conscientious  misgivings  which  young  King 
Ladislaus  expressed  by  his  spiritual  authority  in  giving  dispensa- 
tion and  absolution  in  the  Pope's  name,  and  by  his  eloquence  in 
maintaining  the  infamously  celebrated  thesis,  that  no  faith  is  to  be 
kept  with  misbelievers.  Hunyady  long  resisted  such  persuasions 
to  break  the  treaty ;  but  his  conscience  was  appeased  by  the  promise 
that  he  should  be  made  independent  King  of  Bulgaria,  when  that 
province  was  conquered  from  the  Turks.  He  only  stipulated  that 
the  breach  of  the  treaty  should  be  delayed  till  September  i, 
not  out  of  any  lingering  reluctance  to  violate  it,  but  in  order  that  the 
confederates  might  first  reap  all  possible  benefit  from  it  by  securely 
establishing  their  forces  in  the  strongholds  of  Servia,  which  the 
Ottomans  were  then  evacuating  in  honest  compliance  with  their 
engagements.  On  September  i  the  king,  the  legate,  and  Hun- 
yady marched  against  the  surprised  and  unprepared  Turks  with  an 
army  of  10,000  Poles  and  Hungarians.  The  temerity  which  made 
them  expect  to  destroy  the  Turkish  power  in  Europe  with  so  slight 
a  force  was  equal  to  the  dishonesty  of  their  enterprise.  They  ad- 
vanced into  Wallachia,  where  Drakul,  the  prince  of  that  country, 
joined  them  with  his  levies.  The  Christian  army,  in  full  confidence 
of  success,  crossed  the  Danube  and  marched  through  Bulgaria  to 
the  Black  Sea.  They  then  moved  southward  along  the  coast,  de- 
stroying a  Turkish  flotilla  at  Kaundjik,  receiving  the  surrender  of 
many  fortresses,  and  storming  tlie  strongholds  of  Sunnium  and 
Pezech.  The  Turkish  garrisons  of  these  places  were  put  to  the 
sword  or  thrown  over  precipices.  Kavarna  was  next  attacked  and 
taken,  and  finally  the  Christians  formed  the  siege  of  the  celebrated 
city  of  Varna. 

The  possession  of  Varna  was  then,  as  now,  considered  essen- 
tial for  the  furUier  advance  of  an  invading  army  against  the  Turk- 
ish European  empire.     Hunyady  was  still  successful;  Varna  sur- 


66  TURKEY 

1444 

rendered  to  his  arms;  the  triumphant  Christians  were  encamped 
near  it,  when  they  suddenly  received  the  starthng  tidings  that  it 
was  no  longer  the  boy  Mohammed  that  was  their  adversary,  but 
that  Sultan  Murad  was  himself  again.  They  heard  that  the  best 
warriors  of  Asiatic  Turkey  had  thronged  together  at  the  summons 
of  their  veteran  sovereign — that  the  false  Genoese  had  been 
bribed  to  carry  Murad  and  his  army,  40,000  strong,  across  the 
Bosphorus,  by  a  ducat  for  each  soldier's  freight,  thus  baffling  the 
Papal  fleet  that  cruised  idly  in  the  Hellespont.  Other  messengers 
soon  hurried  into  the  Christian  camp,  who  announced  that  the  un- 
resting Sultan  had  come  on  against  them  by  forced  marches,  and 
that  the  imperial  Turkish  army  was  posted  within  four  miles  of 
Varna. 

A  battle  was  inevitable;  but  the  mode  in  which  Hunyady 
prepared  for  it  showed  that  his  confidence  was  unabated.  He 
rejected  the  advice  which  someone  gave  in  a  council  of  war  to 
form  intrenchments  and  barricades  round  their  camp,  and  there 
await  the  Sultan's  attack.  He  was  for  an  advance  against  the 
advancing  foe,  and  for  a  fair  stricken  field.  The  young  king 
caught  the  enthusiastic  daring  of  his  favorite  general,  and  the  Chris- 
tian army  broke  up  from  their  lines,  and  marched  down  into  the 
level  ground  northward  ^  of  the  city,  to  attack  the  Sultan,  who  had 
carefully  strengthened  his  encampment  there  by  a  deep  ditch  and 
palisades. 

On  the  eve  of  the  feast  of  St.  Mathurin,  November  10, 
1444,  the  two  armies  were  arrayed  for  battle.  The  left  wing  of 
the  Christian  army  consisted  chiefly  of  Wallachian  troops.  The 
best  part  of  the  Hungarian  soldiery  was  in  the  right  wing,  where 
also  stood  the  Frankish  crusaders  under  the  Cardinal  Julian.  The 
king  was  in  the  center  with  the  royal  guard  and  the  young  nobility 
of  his  realms.  The  rearguard  of  Polish  troops  was  under  the 
Bishop  of  Peterwardein.  Hunyady  acted  as  commander-in-chief 
of  the  whole  army.  On  the  Turkish  side  the  two  first  lines  were 
composed  of  cavalry  and  irregular  infantry,  the  Begler-Beg  of 
Rumelia  commanding  on  the  right  and  the  Begler-Beg  of  Ana- 
tolia on  the  left.  In  the  center,  behind  their  lines,  the  Sultan  took 
his  post  with  his  Janissaries  and  the  regular  cavalry  of  his  body- 

2  Murad  had  probably  crossed  tbe  Balkan  by  the  pass  that  leads  from 
Aidos  to  Parvadi,  and  had  then  marched  eastward  upon  Varna.  This  would 
bring  him  to  the  rear  of  Hunyady. 


STRUGGLE     FOR     THE     BALKAN  67 

1444 

guard.  A  copy  of  the  violated  treaty  was  placed  on  a  lance-head 
and  raised  on  high  among  the  Turkish  ranks  as  a  standard  in  the 
battle,  and  as  a  visible  appeal  to  the  God  of  Truth,  who  punishes 
perjury  among  mankind.  At  the  very  instant  when  the  armies 
were  about  to  encounter,  an  evil  omen  troubled  the  Christians.  A 
strong  and  sudden  blast  of  wind  swept  through  their  ranks  and 
blew  all  their  banners  to  the  ground,  save  only  that  of  the  king. 

Yet  the  commencement  of  the  battle  seemed  to  promise  them 
a  complete  and  glorious  victory.  Hunyady  placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  right  wing,  and  charged  the  Asiatic  troops  with  such 
vigor  that  he  broke  them  and  chased  them  from  the  field.  On  the 
other  wing  the  Wallachians  were  equally  successful  against  the  cav- 
alry and  Azabs  of  Rumelia.  King  Ladislaus  advanced  boldly  with 
the  Christian  center,  and  Murad,  seeing  the  rout  of  his  two  first 
lines,  and  the  disorder  that  was  spreading  itself  in  the  ranks 
round  him,  despaired  of  the  fate  of  the  day.  and  turned  his  horse 
for  flight.  Fortunately  for  the  house  of  Othman,  Karadja,  the 
Begler-Beg  of  Anatolia,  who  had  fallen  back  on  the  center  with 
the  remnant  of  his  defeated  wing,  was  near  the  Sultan  at  this  criti- 
cal moment.  He  seized  his  master's  bridle  and  implored  him  to 
fight  the  battle  out.  The  commandant  of  the  Janissaries,  Yazidzi- 
Toghan,  indignant  at  such  a  breach  of  etiquette,  raised  his  sword 
to  smite  the  unceremonious  Begler-Beg,  when  he  was  himself  cut 
down  by  a  Hungarian  saber.  Murad's  presence  of  mind  had  failed 
him  only  for  a  moment,  and  he  now  encouraged  his  Janissaries 
to  stand  firm  against  the  Christian  charge.  Young  King  Ladis- 
laus, on  the  other  side,  fought  gallantly  in  the  thickest  of  the 
strife;  but  his  horse  was  killed  under  him,  and  he  was  then  sur- 
rounded and  overpowered.  He  wished  to  yield  himself  up  pris- 
oner, but  the  Ottomans,  indignant  at  the  breach  of  the  treaty,  had 
sworn  to  give  no  quarter.  An  old  Janissary,  Khodja  Khiri,  cut 
off  the  Christian  king's  head  and  placed  it  on  a  pike,  a  fearful 
companion  to  the  lance  on  which  the  violated  treaty  was  still 
reared  on  high.  The  Hungarian  nobles  were  appalled  at  the  sight, 
and  their  center  fled  in  utter  dismay  from  the  field.  Hunyady, 
on  returning  with  his  victorious  right  wing,  vainly  charged  the 
Janissaries,  and  strove  at  least  to  rescue  from  them  tlie  ghastly 
trophy  of  their  victory.  At  last  he  fled  in  despair  with  the  wreck 
of  the  troops  that  he  had  personally  commanded  and  with  the 
Wallachians   who   collected   round   him.     The    Hungarian    rear- 


68  TURKEY 

1445 

guard,  abandoned  by  their  commanders,  were  attacked  by  the  Turks 
the  next  morning  and  massacred  almost  to  a  man.  Besides  the 
Hungarian  king,  Cardinal  Julian,  the  author  of  the  breach  of  the 
treaty  and  the  cause  of  this  calamitous  campaign,  perished  at 
Varna  beneath  the  Turkish  scimitar,  together  with  Stephen  Ba- 
thory  and  the  Bishops  of  Eilau  and  Grosswardein.-^  This  over- 
throw did  not  bring  immediate  ruin  upon  Hungary,  but  it  was 
fatal  to  the  Slavonic  neighbors  of  the  Ottomans,  who  had  joined 
the  Hungarian  king  against  them.  Servia  and  Bosnia  were  thor- 
oughly reconquered  by  the  Mohammedans.  Seventy  Bosnian  for- 
tresses are  said  to  have  opened  their  gates  to  the  Turks  within 
eight  days.  The  royal  house  of  Bosnia  was  annihilated,  and  many 
of  her  chief  nobles  embraced  Mohammedanism  to  avoid  a  similar 
doom. 

Murad's  projects  for  retirement  had  been  disappointed  by  the 
necessity  of  his  resuming  the  sovereign  power  to  save  the  Ottoman 
Empire  from  the  Hungarians  and  their  confederates.  After  the 
decisive  blow  which  he  had  dealt  at  Varna  to  the  enemies  of  his 
race,  the  Sultan  again  sought  to  obtain  the  calm  of  private  life, 
and  was  again  compelled  to  resume  the  cares  of  state.  Early  in 
1445  he  abdicated  a  second  time  in  favor  of  his  son,  and  went  back 
to  his  Epicurean  retreat  at  Magnesia.  But  the  young  hand  of 
Mohammed  was  too  feeble  to  curb  the  fierce  Turkish  soldiery,  and 
the  Janissaries  showed  their  insubordinate  violence  in  acts  of 
pillage  and  murder,  and  in  arrogant  demands  for  increased  pay, 
which  threatened  open  mutiny  and  civil  war.  The  veteran  states- 
men whom  Murad  had  placed  as  councilors  round  his  son  saw  the 
necessity  of  recalling  their  old  master  to  the  helm  of  the  empire. 
Murad  yielded  to  their  entreaties  and  hastened  to  Adrianople, 
where  he  showed  himself  once  more  to  the  people  and  the  army  as 
their  sovereign.  He  was  rapturously  welcomed.  The  ringleaders  in 
the  late  disorders  were  promptly  punished  and  the  masses  were 
judiciously  pardoned.  Order  was  thoroughly  restored  in  court 
and  camp.  Young  Prince  Mohammed,  who  had  twice  during 
twelve  months  tasted  supreme  power,  and  twice  been  compelled  to 
resign  it,  was  sent  to  iMagnesia,  to  remain  there  till  more  advanced 
age  should  make  him  more  capable  of  reigning.  Murad  did  not 
venture  a  third  lime  on  the  experiment  of  abdication.     He  has  been 

•"5  The  latest  and  best  account  of  the  battle  of  Varna  is  given  in  Kupelnieser, 
pt.  i.  chap.  V. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  BALKAN     69 

1443-1448 

highly  eulogized  as  the  only  sovereign  who  had  ever  abdicated 
twice  and  descended  into  private  life  after  having  learned  by  experi- 
ence the  contrast  between  it  and  the  possession  of  a  throne. 

The  remaining  six  years  of  Murad's  life  and  reign  were  sig- 
nalized by  successful  enterprises  against  the  Peloponnesus,  the 
petty  despots  of  which  became  tributary  vassals  of  the  Ottomans, 
and  by  a  great  defeat  which  he  gave  his  old  antagonist,  Hunyady, 
at  Kosovo,  after  a  three  days'  battle  in  October,  1448.  Li  Albania 
his  arms  were  less  fortunate ;  and  during  the  latter  part  of  Murad's 
reign  his  power  was  defied  and  his  pride  repeatedly  humbled  by 
the  celebrated  George  Castriot,  called  by  the  Turks  Scanderbeg,  or 
Lord  Alexander,  the  name  by  which  he  is  best  known  in  history. 

The  father  of  this  champion,  John  Castriot,  Lord  of  Emal- 
thia  (the  modern  district  of  IMoghlene),  had  submitted,  like  the 
other  petty  despots  of  those  regions,  to  Murad  early  in  his  reign, 
and  had  placed  his  four  sons  in  the  Sultan's  hands  as  hostages 
for  his  fidelity.  Three  of  them  died  young.  The  fourth,  whose 
name  was  George,  pleased  the  Sultan  by  his  beauty,  strength,  and 
intelligence.  Murad  caused  him  to  be  brought  up  in  the  Moham- 
medan creed,  and  when  he  was  only  eighteen  conferred  on  him 
the  government  of  one  of  the  Sanjaks  of  the  empire.  The  young 
Albanian  proved  his  courage  and  skill  in  many  exploits  under 
Murad's  eye,  and  received  from  him  the  name  of  Iskanderbeg,  the 
Lord  Alexander.  When  John  Castriot  died  Murad  took  posses- 
sion of  his  principalities  and  kept  the  son  constantly  employed  in 
distant  wars.  Scanderbeg  brooded  over  this  injury,  and  when 
the  Turkish  armies  were  routed  by  Hunyady  in  the  campaign  of 
1443,  determined  to  escape  from  their  side  and  assume  forcible 
possession  of  his  patrimony.  He  suddenly  entered  the  tent  of 
the  Sultan's  chief  secretary,  and  forced  that  functionary,  with 
the  poniard  at  his  throat,  to  write  and  seal  a  formal  order  to  the 
Turkish  commander  of  the  strong  city  of  Croia,  in  Albania, 
to  deliver  that  place  and  the  adjacent  territory  to  himself,  as 
the  Sultan's  viceroy.  He  then  stabbed  the  secretary  and  hastened 
to  Croia,  where  his  stratagem  gained  him  instant  admittance 
and  submission.  Lie  now  publicly  abjured  the  Mohammedan 
faith,  and  declared  his  intention  of  defending  the  creed  of  liis 
forefathers,  and  restoring  the  independence  of  his  native  land. 
The  Christian  p()])ulati(jn  fiocked  readily  to  his  banner,  and  the 
Turks   were    massacred    without   mercv.      h'or   nearlv   twentv-five 


70  TURKEY 

1448-1451 

years  Scanderbeg  contended  against  all  the  power  of  the  Otto- 
mans, though  directed  by  the  skill  of  Murad  and  his  successor, 
Mohammed,  the  conqueror  of  Constantinople.  The  difficult  nature 
of  the  wild  and  mountainous  country  which  he  occupied  aided 
materially  in  the  long  resistance  which  he  thus  opposed  to  the  else- 
where triumphant  Turks.  But  his  military  genius  must  have  been 
high,  and  without  crediting  all  the  legends  of  his  personal  prowess, 
we  may  well  believe  that  the  favorite  chief  of  the  Albanian  moun- 
taineers in  the  guerrilla  warfare  by  which  he  chiefly  baffled  the 
Turks  must  have  displayed  no  ordinary  skill  and  daring,  and  may 
have  possessed  strength  and  activity  such  as  rarely  fall  to  the  lot 
of  man.  The  strongest  proof  of  his  valor  is  the  superstitious 
homage  w^hich  they  paid  to  him  when  they  occupied  Lissa,  in  the 
Venetian  territories,  whither  Scanderbeg  had  at  last  retired  from 
Albania,  and  where  he  died  in  1467.  The  Turkish  soldiers  forced 
open  his  tomb  and  eagerly  sought  portions  of  his  bones  to  wear  as 
amulets,  thinking  that  they  would  communicate  a  spirit  of  valor 
similar  to  that  of  the  hero  to  whose  mortal  fabric  they  had  once 
belonged. 

The  Sultan,  under  whom  Scanderbeg  had  fought  in  youth, 
died  long  before  the  bold  Albanian  who  once  had  been  his  favorite 
pupil  in  the  art  of  war,  and  afterward  his  most  obstinate  adversary. 
Murad  expired  at  Adrianople  in  145 1,  after  having  governed  his 
people  with  justice  and  in  honor  for  thirty  years.  His  noble  quali- 
ties are  attested  by  the  Greek  as  well  as  by  Turkish  historians.  He 
was  buried  at  Brusa.  The  English  historian,  Knolles,  who  wrote 
in  1610,  says  of  his  sepulcher :  "Here  he  now  lieth  in  a  chapel 
without  any  roof,  his  grave  nothing  differing  from  that  of  the 
common  Turks,  which  they  say  he  commanded  to  be  done  in  his 
last  will,  that  the  mercy  and  blessing  of  God  might  come  unto 
him  by  the  shining  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  the  falling  of  the  rain 
and  dew  of  Heaven  upon  his  grave." 


Chapter   VI 

MOHAMMED    11.    AND   THE    CONQUEST   OF 
CONSTANTINOPLE.     1451-1481 

MOHAMMED  n.,  surnamed  by  his  countrymen  "  the 
Conqueror,"  was  aged  twenty-one  years  when  his 
father  died.  He  heard  of  that  event  at  Magnesia, 
whither  the  Grand  Vizier  had  dispatched  a  courier  to  him  from 
Adrianople.  He  instantly  sprang  on  an  Arab  horse,  and  exclaim- 
ing, "  Let  those  who  love  me  follow  me,"  galloped  off  toward  the 
shore  of  the  Hellespont.  In  a  few  days  he  was  solemnly  enthroned. 
His  first  act  of  sovereign  authority  showed  that  a  different  spirit 
to  that  of  the  generous  Murad  would  now  wield  the  Ottoman 
power.  Murad  had  left  a  little  son,  a  babe  still  at  the  breast,  by 
his  second  wife,  a  princess  of  Servia.  Mohammed  ordered  his 
infant  brother  to  be  drowned  in  a  bath ;  and  the  merciless  com- 
mand was  executed  at  the  very  time  when  the  unhappy  mother, 
in  ignorance  of  her  child's  doom,  was  offering  her  congratulations 
to  the  murderer  on  his  accession.  Mohammed  perceived  the  horror 
which  the  atrocity  of  this  deed  caused  among  his  subjects ;  and  he 
sought  to  avert  it  from  himself  by  asserting  that  the  officer  who 
had  drowned  the  infant  prince  had  acted  without  orders,  and  by 
putting  him  to  death  for  the  pretended  treason.  But  Mohammed 
himself,  when  in  after  years  he  declared  the  practice  of  royal  frat- 
ricide to  be  a  necessary  law  of  the  state,  confessed  clearly  his  own 
share  in  this  the  first  murder  of  his  deeply-purpled  reign. 

He  had  now  fully  outgrown  the  boyish  feebleness  of  mind 
which  had  unfitted  him  for  the  throne  when  twice  placed  on  it  by 
his  father  six  years  before.  For  craft,  capacity,  and  courage  he 
ranks  among  the  highest  of  the  Ottoman  Sultans.  His  merits 
also  as  a  far-sighted  statesman,  and  his  power  of  mind  as  a  legis- 
lator, are  as  undeniable  as  are  his  military  talents.  He  was  also 
keenly  sensible  to  all  intellectual  gratifications,  and  he  was  himself 
possessed  of  unusually  high  literar}^  abilities  and  attainments.  Yet 
with  all  those  qualities  we  find  combined  in  him  an  amount  of 

71 


72  TURKEY 

1448-1451 

cruelty,  perfidy,  and  revolting-  sensuality  such  as  seldom  stain 
human  nature  in  the  same  individual. 

Three  years  hefore  Mohammed  II.  was  girt  with  the  scimitar 
of  Othman,  Constantine  XI.  was  crowned  Emperor  of  Constanti- 
nople— a  prince  whose  heroism  throws  a  sunset  glory  on  the  close 
of  the  long-clouded  series  of  the  Byzantine  annals.  The  Roman 
Empire  of  the  East  was  now  shrunk  to  a  few  towns  and  a  scanty 
district  beyond  the  walls  of  the  capital  city;  but  that  city  was  itself 
a  prize  of  sufficient  splendor  to  tempt  the  ambition  and  excite  the 
hostility  of  a  less  aspiring  and  unscrupulous  spirit  than  that  of  the 
son  of  Murad.  The  Ottomans  felt  that  Constantinople  was  the 
true  natural  capital  of  their  empire.  While  it  was  in  the  hands  of 
others,  the  communication  between  their  European  and  their  Asiatic 
provinces  could  never  be  secure.  Its  acquisition  by  themselves 
would  consolidate  their  power,  and  invest  them  with  the  majesty 
that  still  lingered  round  those  walls,  which  had  encircled  the  chosen 
seat  of  the  Roman  Empire  for  nearly  eleven  hundred  years. 

The  imprudence  of  Constantine,  who  seems  to  have  judged 
the  character  of  Mohammed  from  the  inability  to  reign  which  he 
had  shown  at  the  premature  age  of  fourteen,  hastened  the  hostility 
of  the  young  Sultan.  Constantine  sent  an  embassy  demanding  the 
augmentation  of  a  stipend  which  was  paid  to  the  Byzantine  court 
for  the  maintenance  of  a  descendant  of  Suleiman,  Sultan  Bayezid's 
eldest  son.  This  personage,  who  was  named  Orkhan,  had  long  been 
in  apparent  retirement,  but  real  custody,  at  Constantinople,  and  the 
ambassadors  hinted  that  if  their  demands  were  not  complied  with 
the  Greek  emperor  would  immediately  set  him  loose  to  'compete 
with  Mohammed  for  the  Turkish  throne.  Mohammed,  who  at 
this  time  was  engaged  in  quelling  some  disturbances  in  Asia 
Minor,  answered  with  simulated  courtesy;  but  the  old  Grand 
Vizier,  Khalil,  warned  the  Byzantines  with  indignant  vehemence 
of  the  folly  of  their  conduct,  and  of  the  difference  which  they 
would  soon  experience  between  the  fierce  ambition  of  the  young 
Sultan  and  the  mild  forbearance  of  his  predecessor.  Mohammed 
had  indeed  bent  all  his  energies  on  effecting  the  conquest  of  the 
Greek  capital,  and  he  resolved  to  secure  himself  against  any  inter- 
ruption or  division  of  his  forces  while  engaged  in  that  great  enter- 
prise. He  provided  for  llie  full  security  of  his  territories  in  Asia; 
he  made  a  truce  of  three  years  with  Hunyady  which  guaranteed 
him  from  all  attack  from  the  north  in  Europe;  and  he  then  con- 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE       73 

1452 

temptuously  drove  away  the  imperial  agents  who  received  the 
revenues  of  the  lands  allotted  for  the  maintenance  of  Orkhan,  and 
began  to  construct  a  fortress  on  the  European  side  of  the  Bospho- 
rus,  about  five  miles  above  Constantinople,  at  a  place  where  the 
channel  is  narrowest  and  immediately  opposite  one  that  had  been 
built  by  Bayezid  Ilderim  on  the  Asiatic  shore.  Constantine  re- 
monstrated in  vain  against  these  evident  preparations  for  the 
blockade  of  his  city,  and  the  Ottomans  employed  in  the  work  were 
encouraged  to  commit  acts  of  violence  against  the  Greek  peasantry, 
which  soon  led  to  conflicts  between  armed  bands  on  either  side. 
Constantine  closed  the  gates  of  his  city  in  alarm,  and  sent  another 
embassy  of  remonstrance  to  the  Sultan,  who  replied  by  a  declara- 
tion of  war,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  death-struggle  of  the  Greek 
Empire  was  now  fast  approaching. 

Each  party  employed  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1452  in  ear- 
nest preparations  for  the  siege,  which  was  to  be  urged  by  the  one 
and  resisted  by  the  other  in  the  coming  spring.  Mohammed  col- 
lected the  best  troops  of  his  empire  at  Adrianople ;  but  much  more 
than  mere  numbers  of  soldiery,  however  well  disciplined  and 
armed  for  the  skirmish  or  the  battlefield,  was  requisite  for  the  cap- 
ture of  the  great  and  strong  city  of  Constantinople.  Artillery  had 
for  some  time  previously  been  employed  both  by  Turkish  and  Chris- 
tian armies ;  but  Mohammed  now  prepared  a  more  numerous  and 
formidable  park  of  cannon  than  had  ever  before  been  seen  in  war- 
fare. A  Hungarian  engineer  named  Urban  had  abandoned  the 
thankless  service  and  scanty  pay  of  the  Greeks  for  the  rich  rewards 
and  honors  which  the  Sultan  bestowed  on  all  wiio  aided  him  in 
his  conquest.  Urban  cast  a  monster  cannon  for  the  Turks,  which 
was  the  object  both  of  their  admiration  and  terror.  Other  guns 
of  less  imposing  magnitude,  but  probably  of  greater  efficiency, 
were  prepared;  and  ammunition  and  military  stores  of  every  de- 
scription, and  the  means  of  transport,  were  collected  on  an  equally 
ample  scale.  But  Mohammed  did  not  merely  heap  together  the 
materials  of  war  with  the  ostentatious  profusion  so  common  in 
Oriental  rulers.  He  arranged  all,  he  provided  for  the  right  use 
of  all,  in  the  keen  spirit  of  skillful  combination,  which  we  admire 
in  the  campaigns  of  Caesar  and  Napoleon.  He  was  almost  inces- 
santly occupied  in  tracing  and  discussing  with  his  officers  plans  of 
the  city,  of  his  intended  lines,  of  the  best  positions  for  his  ])atter- 
ies  and  magazines,  of  the  spots  where  mines  might  be  driven  with 


74  TURKEY 

1452-1453 

most  effect,  and  of  the  posts  which  each  division  of  his  troops 
should  occupy. 

In  the  devoted  city,  the  emperor,  with  equal  ability,  but  far 
different  feelings,  collected  the  poor  resources  of  his  own  remnant 
of  empire  and  the  scanty  succors  of  the  Western  nations  for  the 
defense.  The  efforts  which  he  had  made  to  bring  the  Greek 
Church  into  communion  with  the  Church  of  Rome  to  secure  cordial 
and  effectual  support  against  the  Mohammedans,  had  alienated  his 
own  subjects  from  him.  The  lay  leader  of  the  orthodox  Greeks, 
the  Grand  Duke  Notaras,  openly  avowed  that  he  would  rather  see 
the  turban  of  the  Sultan  than  the  tiara  of  the  Pope  in  Constantinople. 
Only  six  thousand  Greeks,  out  of  a  population  of  one  hundred  thou- 
sand, took  any  part  in  the  defense  of  the  city. 

The  Latin  auxiliaries  were  partly  contributed  by  the  Pope,  who 
sent  Cardinal  Isidore  with  a  small  body  of  veteran  troops  and 
some  pecuniary  aid  to  the  Greek  emperor.  The  Italian  and  Span- 
ish commercial  cities  that  traded  with  Constantinople  showed 
their  interest  in  her  fate,  by  sending  contingents  to  her  defense. 
Bands  of  Aragonese,  of  Catalans,  and  of  Venetians  gave  assistance 
to  Constantine,  which  their  skill  and  bravery  made  of  great  value, 
though  their  numbers  were  but  small.  His  most  important  aux- 
iliary w^as  the  Genoese  commander,  John  Giustiniani,  who  arrived 
\vith  two  galleys  and  three  hundred  chosen  men  a  little  before  the 
commencement  of  the  siege.  Altogether,  Constantine  had  a  gar- 
rison of  about  9000  troops  to  defend  walls  of  fourteen  miles  in 
extent,  the  whole  landward  part  of  which,  for  a  space  of  five 
miles,  was  certain  to  be  attacked  by  the  Turkish  troops.  The 
fortifications,  built  in  ancient  times,  and  for  other  systems  of  war- 
fare, were  ill-adapted  to  have  heavy  cannon  placed  and  w^orked  on 
them ;  and  many  places  had  been  suffered  to  become  dilapidated. 
Still,  amid  all  this  difficulty  and  distress  Constantine  did  his  duty 
to  his  country  and  liis  creed.  No  means  of  restoring  or  improv- 
ing the  defenses  were  neglected  which  his  own  military  skill  and 
that  of  his  Latin  allies  could  suggest,  and  which  his  ill-supplied 
treasury  and  his  disloyal  subjects  w^ould  enable  him  to  provide. 
But  the  patriotism,  and  even  tlie  genius,  of  a  single  ruler  are  vain 
to  save  the  people  that  will  not  save  themselves.  The  Greeks  had 
long  been  ripe  for  slavery,  nor  could  their  fall  be  further  delayed. 

In  the  spring  of  1453  tlie  Turks  were  for  the  last  time  before 
the  city,  so  often  besieged  by  them  and  others,  and  so  often  be- 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE      75 

1453 

sieged  in  vain.*  Mohammed  formed  his  lines,  as  Murad  had 
done,  from  the  harbor  to  the  sea,  and  they  were  strengthened  with 
a  similar  embankment.  Fourteen  batteries  were  formed  opposite 
those  parts  of  the  landward  wall  of  the  city  that  appeared  to 
be  the  feeblest.  The  chief  attack  was  directed  against  the  gate 
of  St.  Romaniis,  near  the  center  of  the  wall.  Besides  the  Turkish 
cannon,  balistas  were  planted  along  the  lines,  which  hurled  large 
stones  upon  the  battlements.  The  Turkish  archers  kept  up  a 
shower  of  arrows  on  any  part  of  the  walls  where  the  defenders 
showed  themselves;  and  a  body  of  miners,  whom  the  Sultan  had 
brought  from  the  mines  of  Novoberda,  in  Servia,  carried  on  their 
subterranean  works  as  far  as  the  city  wall,  and  forced  large  open- 
ings in  the  outer  of  the  two  walls.  The  aggregate  of  the  Turkish 
troops  is  variously  estimated  at  from  70,000  to  250,000.  The 
smaller  number  must  have  been  sufficient  for  all  the  military  opera- 
tions of  the  siege;  nor  is  it  probable  that  Mohammed  would  have 
increased  the  difficulty  of  finding  sufficient  provisions  for  his  army 
by  uselessly  crowding  its  ranks.  Besides  the  land  forces,  the  Sultan 
had  collected  a  fleet  of  320  vessels,  of  various  sizes,  but  all  inferior 
to  the  large  galleons  of  the  Greeks  and  their  allies.  But  the  Chris- 
tian ships  were  only  fourteen  in  number.  These  were  moored 
in  the  Golden  Horn,  or  Great  Harbor,  the  entrance  of  which  was 
secured  by  a  strong  chain.  The  siege  commenced  on  April  6, 
1453,  and  w^as  prolonged  by  the  bravery  and  skill  of  Constantine, 

1  Von  Hammer  enumerates  twenty-nine  sieges  of  the  city  since  its  founda- 
tion by  the  Megarians,  658  b.  c,  under  the  name  of  Byzantium.  It  was  besieged, 
477  B.  c,  by  Pausanias,  gcneraHssimo  of  the  Greeks,  after  the  campaign  of 
Platiea ;  in  410  B.  c,  by  Alcibiades ;  in  347  b.  c,  by  Leon,  general  of  Philip  of 
Macedon ;  in  197  a.  v.,  by  the  Emperor  Severus;  in  313.  by  the  Caesar  Maxi- 
mius;  in  315,  by  Constantine  the  Great;  in  616,  by  Khosroes,  King  of  Persia; 
in  626,  by  the  Chagan  of  the  Avars ;  in  654,  by  the  Arabs  under  Moawya ;  in 
667,  by  Yezid,  the  Arab;  in  672,  by  Sofien  Ben  Aouf,  the  Arab;  in  715,  by 
Moslema  and  Omar  Abdul-Aziz,  the  Arabs ;  in  739,  by  Suleiman,  son  of  the 
Caliph  Abdul  Melek;  in  764,  by  Paganos,  Krai  of  the  Bulgarians;  in  780,  by 
llanm-al-Rashid;  in  798,  by  Abdul-^Melek,  Harun's  general;  in  811,  by 
Kramus,  Despot  of  the  Sclavi;  in  820,  by  the  Slavian  Thomas;  in  866,  by 
the  Russians,  under  Askold  and  Dir;  in  914,  by  Simeon,  Krai  of  the  Bulgarians; 
in  1048,  by  the  rebel  Thornicius;  in  1081,  by  Alexius  Comnenus;  in  1204,  by 
the  Crusaders;  in  1261,  by  INIichael  Pahtologus;  in  1356,  by  Bayezid  Ilderim, 
for  the  first  time;  in  1402,  by  tlie  same,  for  the  second  time:  in  1414,  by  Musa, 
Bayezid's  son;  in  1422,  by  Murad  II.;  and  in  1453,  by  Mohammed  II.  Since 
then  it  has  been  unbesieged  for  four  centuries.  Of  the  numerous  commanders 
who  luive  attacked  the  city,  eight  only  have  captured  it :  Pausanias,  Alcibiades, 
Severus,  Constantine,  Alexius  Comnenus,  Dandolo,  Michael  Palaeologus,  and 
Mohammed. 


76  TURKEY 

1453 

Giustiniani,  and  tlieir  Latin  troops  until  May  20.  Many  gallant 
deeds  were  performed  during  this  time.  The  ability  with  which 
Giustiniani  taught  the  defenders  to  work  their  artillery,  and  to  use 
the  important  arm  of  war  which  they  still  exclusively  pos- 
sessed in  the  Greek  fire,  excited  the  regretful  eulogies  of  the 
Sultan  himself.  A  general  assault,  which  the  Turks  hazarded  be- 
fore the  walls  were  completely  breached,  and  in  which  they  em- 
ployed the  old  machinery  of  movable  towers,  was  repulsed;  and 
the  besiegers'  engines  were  destroyed.  A  squadron  of  four  Geno- 
ese ships  and  one  Greek  ship  from  Chios  forced  their  way 
through  the  Turkish  flotilla  and  brought  seasonable  supplies  of 
corn  and  ammunition  to  the  city.  This  action,  which  took  place 
in  the  middle  of  April,  was  the  most  brilliant  episode  of  the  siege. 
Mohammed  had  ordered  out  a  division  of  his  galleys,  150  strong, 
to  intercept  the  five  ships  of  the  Christians  that  were  seen  running 
swiftly  and  steadily  through  the  Propontis  before  a  full  and  favor- 
able wind.  The  Greeks  thronged  the  walls,  and  the  Turks 
crowded  down  to  the  beach  to  watch  the  issue  of  this  encounter. 
The  Sultan  himself  rode  down  to  the  water's  edge  in  full  expectation 
of  witnessing  a  triumph  of  his  marine  force  and  the  destruc- 
tion or  capture  of  his  enemies.  On  came  the  Christian  ships,  well- 
armed,  well-manned,  and  well-maneuvered.  They  crashed  through 
the  foremost  of  their  brave  but  unpracticed  assailants.  Their 
superior  height  made  it  impossible  for  their  enemies  to  grapple 
or  board  them,  and  the  very  number  and  eagerness  of  the  Turks 
increased  the  disorder  in  which  their  vessels  soon  were  heaped 
confusedly  together.  Shouts  of  joy  rose  from  the  city  walls,  while 
Mohammed,  furious  at  the  sight,  spurred  his  horse  into  the  very 
surf,  as  if  with  his  own  hand  he  would  tear  the  victory  from  the 
Greeks.  Still  onward  came  the  exulting  Christian  seamen.  From 
their  tall  decks  they  hurled  large  stones  and  poured  incessant 
volleys  of  the  inextinguishable  Greek  fire  upon  the  Turkish  barks 
beneath  and  around  them.  Onward  they  came  to  the  harbor's 
mouth ;  the  guard-chain  was  lowered  to  receive  them ;  and  the 
welcome  reinforcement  rode  securely  in  the  Golden  Horn,  while 
the  shattered  remnant  of  the  Turkish  squadron  crept  back  to  the 
shore,  where  their  sorrowing  comrades  of  the  land  force  and  their 
indignant  Sultan  awaited  them.  Mohammed,  in  his  wrath  at  the 
loss,  and  slill  more  at  the  humiliation  which  he  had  sustained, 
ordered  his  defeated  admiral,  Baltaoghli,  to  be  impaled  on  the  spot. 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE      77 

1453 

The  murmurs  and  entreaties  of  the  Janissaries  made  him  recall  the 
atrocious  command,  but  he  partly  wreaked  his  wrath  by  inflicting 
personal  chastisement  on  his  brave  but  unsuccessful  officer. 

The  victory  which  the  five  relieving  galleys  obtained  did  more 
even  than  the  material  succor  which  they  conveyed  to  reanimate 
the  defenders  of  Constantinople.  But  it  was  a  solitary  reinforce- 
ment. Constantine  and  Giustiniani  never  again  "  saw  the  horizon 
whiten  with  sails  "  that  bore  hope  and  succor  on  their  wings. 
And  Mohammed  was  no  Xerxes,  to  be  disheartened  by  a  single 
defeat,  or  to  turn  back  from  an  enterprise  because  its  difficulties 
surpassed  expectation.  Unable  to  gain  the  entrance  of  the  har- 
bor, he  determined  by  a  bold  engineering  maneuver  to  transport 
part  of  his  fleet  across  the  land,  and  launch  it  at  the  upper  part  of 
the  Golden  Horn,  where  in  the  narrow  smooth  water,  and  with 
aid  ready  from  either  shore,  his  galleys  would  have  the  mastery 
over  the  far  less  numerous  though  larger  vessels  of  the  Greeks.  A 
smooth  road  of  planks  was  accordingly  made  along  the  five  miles 
of  land  which  intervene  between  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Golden 
Horn ;  and  a  large  division  of  the  Turkish  galleys  was  hauled  along 
it  and  safely  launched  in  the  harbor.  As  it  was  necessary  to  over- 
come a  considerable  inclination  of  the  ground,  this  engineering 
achievement  reflects  great  credit  on  Sultan  Mohammed ;  though  the 
transport  of  war-galleys  over  broad  spaces  of  land  was  no  novelty, 
either  in  classical  or  medieval  warfare;  and  a  remarkable  instance 
had  lately  occurred  in  Italy,  where  the  Venetians,  in  1437,  had 
moved  a  fleet  overland  from  the  Adige  to  the  Lake  of.  Garda. 

Master  of  the  upper  part  of  the  harbor,  Mohammed  formed  a 
pontoon  bridge  across  it,  the  western  end  of  which  was  so  near  to 
the  angle  of  the  landward  and  the  harbor  walls  that  cannon  placed 
on  the  pontoon  bridge  could  play  upon  the  harbor  side  of  the 
city.  Giustiniani  in  vain  attempted,  with  the  Genoese  and  Greek 
galleys,  to  destroy  this  bridge  and  burn  the  Turkish  flotilla.  The 
Venetians  renewed  the  attempt  with  e(|ually  bad  success.  ]\Iean- 
while,  the  exertions  of  the  besiegers  on  the  original  and  chief  line 
of  the  siege  were  unremitting.  The  fire  of  their  batteries,  though 
slow  and  feeble  in  comparison  with  the  artillery  practice  of  modern 
times,  was  kept  up  for  seven  weeks,  and  its  eft'ects  were  at  last 
visible  in  the  overthrow  of  four  large  towers  and  the  yawning 
of  a  broad  chasm  in  the  city  walls  near  the  gate  of  St.  Romanus. 
The  ditch  was  nearly  filled  up  by  the  ruins  of  the  defenses,  and  the 


78  TURKEY 

1453 

path  into  Constantinople  was  at  last  open.  Mohammed  now  sent 
a  last  summons  to  surrender,  to  which  Constantine  nobly  replied 
that  if  the  Sultan  would  grant  him  peace  he  would  accept  it,  with 
thanks  to  Heaven,  that  he  would  pay  the  Sultan  tribute  if  demanded, 
but  that  he  would  not  surrender  the  city  which  he  had  sworn  to 
defend  to  the  last  moment  of  his  life.  The  capitulation  was  de- 
manded and  refused  on  May  24,  and  the  Sultan  gave  orders  for  a 
general  assault  on  the  29th. 

Within  the  city,  the  Greek  population  passed  alternately  from 
terror  at  the  coming  storm  to  turbulent  confidence  in  certain 
superstitious  legends  which  promised  the  help  of  saints  and  angels 
to  men  who  would  not  help  themselves.  Only  a  small  proportion 
of  his  subjects  listened  to  the  expostulations  and  entreaties,  by 
which  their  noble-minded  emperor  urged  them  to  deserve  the 
further  favor  of  Heaven  by  using  to  the  utmost  those  resources 
which  Heaven  had  already  placed  in  their  hands.  Even  among 
those  who  bore  arms  as  part  of  the  garrison  the  meanest  jealousy 
of  their  Latin  auxiliaries  prevailed.  On  the  very  eve  of  the  final 
assault,  when  Giustiniani,  who  was  charged  with  the  defense  of 
the  great  breach,  required  some  additional  guns,  the  Grand  Duke 
Notaras,  wdio  had  the  general  control  of  the  ordnance,  refused  the 
supply,  saying  that  it  was  unnecessary.  The  Latins  did  their  duty 
nobly.  Of  the  twelve  chief  posts  in  the  defense,  ten  were  held 
by  them.  Giustiniani  in  particular  distinguished  himself  by  his 
valor  and  skill.  He  formed  new  works  in  the  rear  of  the  demolished 
towers  and  gate  of  St.  Romanus;  and  extorted  the  admiration  of 
the  Sultan,  who  watched  his  preparations,  and  exclaimed,  '"  What 
would  I  not  give  to  gain  that  man  to  my  service !  "  But  the  chief 
hero  of  the  defense  was  Constantine  himself.  He  knew  that  his 
hour  was  come,  and  prepared  to  die  in  the  discharge  of  duty  with 
the  earnest  piety  of  a  true  Christian  and  the  calm  courage  of 
a  brave  soldier.  On  the  night  before  the  assault  he  received  the 
Holy  Sacrament  in  the  church  of  St.  Sophia.  Lie  then  proceeded 
to  the  great  palace  and  lingered  for  a  short  time  in  the  halls 
where  his  predecessors  had  reigned  for  so  many  centuries,  but 
which  neither  he  nor  any  prince  sprung  from  his  race  was  ever  to 
see  again.  When  he  had  passed  forth  from  the  palace  to  take  his 
station  at  the  great  breach,  and  there  await  his  martyrdom,  all 
thoughts  of  earth!}'  grandeur  were  forgotten,  and,  turning  to  those 
around  him,  many  of  whom  had  been  his  companions  from  youth. 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE       79 

1453 

Constantine  asked  of  them,  as  fellow-Christians,  their  forgiveness 
for  any  offense  that  he  had  ever  committed  toward  them.  Amid 
the  tears  and  prayers  of  all  who  beheld  him,  the  last  of  the  Caesars 
then  went  forth  to  die. 

In  the  Ottoman  camp  all  was  ready  for  the  work  of  death. 
Each  column  had  its  specified  point  of  attack;  and  the  Sultan  had 
so  arranged  the  vast  masses  of  men  at  his  command  that  he  was 
prepared  to  send  fresh  troops  successively  forward  against  the 
city,  even  if  its  defenders  were  to  hold  their  ground  against  him 
from  daybreak  to  noon.  At  sunrise,  on  May  29,  1453,  the 
Turkish  drums  and  trumpets  sounded  for  the  assault,  and  the 
leading  divisions  of  the  Sultan's  army  rushed  forward.  Prodigal 
of  lives,  and  reckoning  upon  wearing  down  the  resistance  of  the 
garrison  by  sending  wave  upon  wave  of  stormers  against  them, 
Mohammed  placed  his  least  valued  soldiers  in  the  van,  to  receive 
the  first  steady  volleys  of  the  Greek  guns,  and  dull  the  edge  of 
the  Christian  sword.  The  better  troops  were  to  follow.  The 
main  body  of  the  Janissaries,  under  the  Sultan's  own  eye,  was  to 
assault  the  principal  breach.  Detachments  of  those  chosen  warriors 
were  also  directed  against  other  weakened  points  of  the  defense. 
At  the  same  time  that  the  attack  commenced  from  the  camp  the 
Turkish  flotilla  moved  against  the  fortifications  along  the  harbor, 
and  the  assault  soon  raged  by  sea  and  by  land  along  two  sides  of 
the  Greek  city.  For  two  hours  the  Christians  resisted  skillfully 
and  steadily;  and  though  the  Sultan  in  person,  by  promises,  by 
threats,  and  by  blows,  urged  his  columns  forward  to  the  great 
breach,  neither  there  nor  elsewhere  along  the  line  could  they  bear 
back  the  stubborn  courage  of  the  defenders;  nor  could  a  living 
Mohammedan  come  into  Constantinople.  At  last  Giustiniani,  who, 
side  by  side  with  the  emperor,  conducted  the  defense  of  the  great 
breach,  received  a  severe  wound,  and  left  his  post  to  die  on  board 
his  galley  in  the  harbor.  The  garrison  was  dispirited  at  the  loss; 
and  the  chiefs  of  the  assailing  Janissaries,  observing  that  the  resist- 
ance had  slackened,  redoubled  their  eft'orts  to  force  a  passage. 
One  of  them,  named  Hassan  of  Ulubad,  conspicuous  by  his  stature 
and  daring,  rushed  with  thirty  comrades  up  the  barricaded  ruins 
of  one  of  the  overthrown  towers  that  flanked  the  breach.  They 
gained  the  summit;  and  though  Hassan  and  eighteen  of  his  forlorn 
hope  were  struck  down,  others  rapidly  followed,  and  carried  the 
Greek   defenses   by   the   overwhelming   weight   of   their   numbers. 


80  TURKEY 

1453 

Nearly  at  the  same  time  another  Ottoman  corps  effected  an 
entrance  at  a  shghtly-protected  part  of  the  long  line  of  walls,  and 
wheeling  round,  took  the  garrison  in  the  rear.  Constantine  saw 
now  that  all  was  lost,  save  honor,  and  exclaiming,  "  I  would 
rather  die  than  live!"  the  last  of  the  Romans  rushed  amid  the 
advancing  foe  and  fell  stretched  by  two  saber  wounds  among  the 
undistinguished  dead. 

Torrent  after  torrent  of  the  conquerors  now  raged  through  the 
captured  city.  At  first  they  slew  all  whom  they  met  or  overtook, 
but  when  they  found  that  all  resistance  had  ceased,  the  love  of 
plunder  predominated  over  the  thirst  for  blood,  and  they  strove  to 
secure  the  fairest  and  strongest  of  the  helpless  thousands  that 
cowered  before  them  for  service  or  for  sale  as  slaves.  About  the 
hour  of  noon  Sultan  Mohammed,  surrounded  by  his  viziers,  his 
pashas,  and  his  guards,  rode  through  the  breach  at  the  gate  of 
St.  Romanus  into  the  city  which  he  had  conquered.  He  alighted 
at  the  church  of  St.  Sophia,  and  entering  the  splendid  edifice,  he 
ordered  one  of  the  Muezzins  who  accompanied  him  to  summon 
the  true  believers  to  prayer.  He  then  himself  mounted  the  high 
altar  and  prayed.  Having  thus  solemnly  established  the  creed  of 
the  Prophet  in  the  shrine  where  his  fallen  adversary  had  on  the 
preceding  eve  celebrated  the  holiest  Christian  rite,  and  where  so 
many  generations  of  Christians  had  worshiped,  Mohammed  ordered 
search  to  be  made  for  Constantine's  body.  It  was  found  under  a 
heap  of  slain  in  the  great  breach,  and  was  identified,  beyond  all 
possibility  of  dispute,  by  the  golden  eagles  that  were  embroidered 
upon  the  emperor's  buskins.  The  head  was  cut  off  and  exhibited 
for  a  time  between  the  feet  of  the  bronze  horse  of  the  equestrian 
statue  of  Justinian  in  the  place  called  the  Augustan.  The  ghastly 
trophy  of  Mohammed's  conquest  was  subsequently  embalmed  and 
sent  round  to  the  chief  cities  of  Asia.  The  greater  number  of 
the  emperor's  Latin  auxiliaries  had  shared  his  noble  death.  Some 
few  had  made  their  way  to  the  harbor  and  escaped  through  the 
Ottoman  fleet.  Others  came  as  captives  into  Mohammed's  power, 
and  were  either  put  to  death  or  required  to  pay  heavy  ransoms. 
The  Genoese  inhabitants  of  the  suburb  of  Galata  obtained  terms 
of  capitulation  by  which  they  were  protected  from  pillage.  The 
Grand  Duke  Xotaras  was  brought  prisoner  before  Mohammed,  who 
made  a  sliow  of  treating  him  with  favor,  and  obtained  from  him 
a  list  of  the  principal  Greek  dignitaries  and  officers  of  state.     The 


ENTRY     OF     MOTI.\M>rEn     TT     IXTO     COXSTAXTINOPLE 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE       81 

1453 

Sultan  instantly  proclaimed  their  names  to  his  soldiers  and  offered 
icx)0  sequins  for  each  of  their  heads. 

On  the  day  after  the  capture  of  the  city  Mohammed  continued 
his  survey  of  his  conquest  and  took  possession  of  the  imperial 
palace.  Struck  by  the  solitude  of  its  spacious  halls,  and  the  image 
of  desolation  which  it  presented,  Mohammed  repeated  two  lines 
of  the  Persian  poet  Firdusi :  *  The  spider's  web  is  the  royal  curtain 
in  the  palace  of  Caesar;  the  owl  is  the  sentinel  on  the  watch-tower 
of  Afrasiab."  The  quotation  showed  the  well-read  and  elegant 
scholar,  but  the  subsequent  deeds  of  the  Sultan  on  that  day  exempli- 
fied the  truth  that  intellectual  eminence  is  no  sure  guarantee  against 
the  coexistence  of  the  vilest  depravity. 

But  though  thus  merciless  in  his  lust  and  wrath,  Mohammed 
knew  well  that  for  Constantinople  to  become  such  a  seat  of  empire 
as  his  ambition  desired  it  was  necessary  that  the  mass  of  the 
Greek  population  which  had  escaped  death  and  captivity  during 
the  sack  of  the  city  should  be  encouraged  to  remain  there,  and  to 
be  orderly  and  industrious  subjects  of  their  new  master.  The 
measures  taken  by  him  with  this  design  attest  the  clear-sighted 
statesmanship  which  he  possessed.  Constantine  had  alienated  his 
subjects  from  him  by  conforming  to  the  Latin  Church.  Mohammed 
now  gratified  the  Greeks,  who  loved  their  orthodoxy  far  more 
than  their  liberty,  by  installing  a  new  patriarch  at  the  head  of 
the  Greek  Church,  and  proclaiming  himself  its  protector.  This 
was  on  June  i,  only  ten  days  after  the  storm.  He  then  by  solemn 
proclamation  invited  all  the  fugitives  to  return  to  their  homes, 
assuring  them  of  safety  and  encouraging  them  to  resume  their 
former  occupations.  A  formal  charter  was  afterward  granted  by 
him,  which  declared  the  person  of  the  Greek  patriarch  inviolable, 
and  exempted  him  and  the  other  dignitaries  of  his  church  from  all 
public  burdens.  The  same  document  assured  to  the  Greeks  the 
use  of  their  churches,  and  the  free  exercise  of  their  religious  rites 
according  to  their  own  usages.  But  the  Greek  population  of  Con- 
stantinople had  been  long  declining,  and  even  before  its  sufferings 
in  the  fatal  siege,  had  been  far  inadequate  for  the  vast  space  occu- 
pied by  the  buildings.  Mohammed,  therefore,  sought  other  modes 
of  replenishing  the  city.  Thousands  of  families  were  transplanted 
to  the  capital  from  various  parts  of  his  empire ;  and  at  every  acces- 
sion of  territory  he  colonized  his  capital  with  portions  of  his  new 
subjects.     Before  the  close  of  his  reign  Constantinople  was  again 


82  TURKEY 

1453-1456 

teeming  with  life  and  activity;  but  the  Greek  character  of  the  city 
was  merged  amid  the  motley  crowds  of  Turkomans,  Albanians, 
Bulgarians,  Servians,  and  others,  who  had  repaired  thither  at  the 
Sultan's  bidding.  The  vision  of  Othman  was  now  accomplished, 
and  Constantinople  had  become  the  center  jewel  in  the  ring  of 
Turkish  Empire, 

Mohammed  II.  was  but  twenty-three  years  of  age  when  he 
took  Constantinople.  The  fragments  of  the  Greek  Empire,  which 
had  lingered  for  a  while  unconnected  with  the  central  power  of  the 
emperor,  were  speedily  subdued  by  the  new  ruler  of  Constantinople. 
The  Peloponnesus  was  conquered  in  1454,  and  Trebizond  in  the 
following  year.  Servia  and  Bosnia  were  completely  reduced  into 
Turkish  provinces.  The  last  Bosnian  king  and  his  sons  surrendered 
to  IMohammed  on  a  capitulation  which  guaranteed  their  lives,  and 
which  the  Sultan  swore  to  observe.  Mohammed  obtained  a  de- 
cision from  the  Mufti  Ali-Bestami,  which  declared  that  the  Sultan's 
treaty  and  oath  were  not  binding  on  him,  as  being  made  with  un- 
believers, and  that  he  was  at  liberty  to  put  his  prisoners  to  death. 
The  mufti  begged,  as  a  favor,  that  he  might  carry  his  own  opinion 
into  effect  by  acting  as  executioner.  The  captive  Bosnian  king 
was  ordered  into  the  Sultan's  presence,  and  came  with  the  treaty 
of  capitulation  in  his  hand.  The  mufti  exclaimed,  "  It  is  a  good 
deed  to  slay  such  infidels,"  and  cut  the  king  down  with  his  own 
saber.     The  princes  were  put  to  death  in  the  interior  of  the  tent. 

In  Albania,  Scanderbeg  held  out  gallantly  against  the  power  of 
the  Sultan,  who,  in  1461,  was  even  forced  to  accede  to  a  tempo- 
rary treaty  which  acknowledged  Scanderbeg  as  Lord  of  Albania 
and  Epirus.  Hostilities  were  soon  renewed,  and  the  Turks  gradu- 
ally gained  ground  by  the  lavish  sacrifice  of  life  and  treasure,  and 
by  the  continued  pressure  of  superior  numbers.  But  the  break- 
water which  Scanderbeg  long  formed  against  the  flood  of  Mo- 
hammedan conquest,  and  the  glorious  resistance  which  Hunyady 
accomplished  at  Belgrade,  were  invaluable  to  Western  Christen- 
dom. They  delayed  for  many  years  the  cherished  projects  of  ]Mo- 
hammed  against  Italy;  and  the  victory  of  Hunyady  barred  the 
principal  path  into  the  German  states.  It  was  in  1456  that  the 
Sultan  besieged  Belgrade,  then  regarded  as  the  key  of  Hungary. 
Hunyady  exerted  in  its  defense  all  the  fiery  valor  that  had  marked 
him  from  his  youtli  up,  and  the  skill  and  caution  which  he  had 
acquired  during  maturer  years.     He  was  powerfully  aided  by  the 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE       83 

1456 

bands  of  crusaders  whom  the  efforts  of  Pope  Callxtus  III,  and  the 
celebrated  preacher,  St.  John  Capistran,  brought  to  his  assistance. 
The  tidings  of  the  fall  of  Constantinople  had  filled  Western  Chris- 
tendom with  shame,  indignation,  and  alarm.  Formal  vows  of  war- 
fare for  the  rescue  of  the  fallen  city  from  the  infidels  were  made  by 
many  of  the  chief  princes,  but  evaporated  in  idle  pageants  and  un- 
executed decrees.  But  when  another  great  Christian  city  was 
assailed,  and  when  it  was  evident  that  if  Belgrade  fell  Vienna 
and  other  Western  capitals  would  soon  be  in  jeopardy,  religious 
zeal  and  patriotic  caution  were  for  a  time  active,  and  a  large  and 
efficient  auxiliary  force  was  led  by  Capistran,  in  person,  to  fight 
under  the  banner  of  Hunyady.  Mohammed  had  been  made  over- 
confident by  his  success  at  Constantinople  and  boasted  that  Belgrade 
would  be  an  easy  prize.  His  powerful  artillery  soon  shattered 
the  walls;  and  in  a  general  assault,  on  July  21,  1456,  the  Janis- 
saries carried  the  trenches  and  forced  their  way  into  the  lower 
part  of  the  town.  But  the  Christians  at  Belgrade  w^ere  numer- 
ous, were  brave,  and  ably  commanded.  Capistran  rallied  the  gar- 
rison; the  Turks  were  repulsed  from  the  upper  town;  and  after 
six  hours'  hard  fighting  they  were  driven  out  of  the  portion  which 
they  had  occupied.  At  this  critical  moment  the  martial  saint,  with 
the  discernment  of  a  great  general  and  the  fiery  energy  of  a  devo- 
tee, sallied  with  a  thousand  crusaders  upon  the  enemy's  batteries. 
Calling  on  the  name  of  Jesus,  while  their  panic-stricken  enemies 
fled  with  cries  of  "  Allah !  "  the  Christians  fought  their  way  into  the 
Ottoman  camp  and  captured  the  whole  of  the  besiegers'  artillery. 
Mohammed,  indignant  at  the  flight  of  his  troops,  strove  in  vain  to 
stem  the  tide  and  fought  desperately  in  person  against  the  ad- 
vancing foes.  With  a  blow  of  his  saber  he  struck  off  the  head  of 
one  of  the  leading  crusaders,  but  received  at  the  same  instant  a 
wound  in  the  thigh,  and  was  obliged  to  be  carried  off  by  his  at- 
tendants. Furious  at  his  defeat  and  disgrace,  he  saw,  as  they  bore 
him  away,  Hassan,  the  general  of  the  Janissaries,  and  overwhelmed 
him  with  reproaches  and  threats.  Hassan  replied  that  many  of 
his  men  were  slain  and  that  the  rest  would  no  longer  obey  the  word 
of  command.  He  then,  before  his  sovereign's  eyes,  threw  himself 
among  the  advancing  Hungarians  and  met  a  soldier's  death.  The 
Sultan's  horseguards  checked  the  further  pursuit  of  the  Christians 
and  secured  the  retreat  of  their  wounded  master.  But  three  hun- 
dred cannons    and  the  whole  of  the  Turkish  military  stores    were 


84.  TURKEY 

1456 

captured;  and  25,000  of  Mohammed's  best  troops  had  fallen. 
Hunyady  did  not  long  survive  this  crowning  triumph  of  his  gal- 
lant, though  checkered,  career.  He  died  at  Belgrade  twenty  days 
after  the  flight  of  Mohammed  from  before  the  walls. 

In  Asia  Mohammed's  arms  were  more  uniformly  successful. 
He  conquered  and  annexed  to  his  empire  Sinope  and  Trebizond, 
and  he  finally  subdued  the  princes  of  Caramania,^  those  long  and 
rancorous  enemies  of  the  house  of  Othman.  The  most  important  of 
all  his  conquests,  after  that  of  Constantinople,  was  the  subjugation 
of  the  Crimea,  in  1475,  by  one  of  the  most  celebrated  of  the  Turk- 
ish captains,  Ahmed,  surnamed  Kediik,  or  Broken-mouth,  who 
was  Mohammed's  Grand  Vizier  from  1473  to  1477.  The  imme- 
diate causes  of  the  expedition  to  the  Crimea  were  the  Sultan's 
hostility  with  the  Genoese,  who  possessed  the  strong  city  of  Kaffa 
in  that  country,  and  the  entreaties  which  the  deposed  Khan  of  the 
Crim  Tartars  addressed  to  Mohammed  for  aid  against  his  revolted 
brothers.  But  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  a  prince  of  Mohammed's 
genius  discerned  the  immense  value  of  the  Crimea  to  the  occupiers 
of  Constantinople,  and  the  necessity  of  securing  his  dominions  by 
its  annexation.  Ahmed  Kediik  attacked  Kaffa  with  a  powerful 
fleet  and  an  army  of  40,000  men.  That  city,  then  called  Little 
Constantinople,  from  its  wealth  and  strength,  surrendered  in  four 
days.  The  booty  which  the  conqueror  seized  there  was  immense; 
40,000  of  the  inhabitants  were  transplanted  to  Constantinople, 
and  1500  young  Genoese  nobles  were  compelled  to  enter  into  the 
corps  of  Janissaries.  The  whole  of  the  peninsula  was  speedily 
occupied  by  the  Turkish  troops,  and  the  Crimean  Khans  were 
thenceforth  for  three  centuries  the  vassals  of  the  Ottoman  Sultans. 

Mohammed  was  frequently  engaged  in  hostilities  with  the 
Venetians  as  well  as  with  the  Genoese.^  The  archipelago  and  the 
coasts  of  Greece  were  generally  the  scenes  of  these  wars,  in  the 
course  of  which  the  Sultan  obtained  possession  of  Euboea,  Lesbos, 
Lemnos,  Cephalonia,  and  other  islands.  The  conquest  of  the  Euba^a 
was  marked  by  base  treachery  and  cruelty  on  the  part  of  the  Sul- 
tan, and  signalized  by  the  pure  courage  of  a  Christian  heroine. 
The  Venetian  commander,  Paul  Erizzo,  after  a  long  and  brave 
defense,  surrendered  the  citadel  on  condition  of  the  Sultan  pledg- 

2  The  Caramanians  were  aided  by  the  Turkoman  ruler  of  Persia,  Ussun 
Hassan,  whom  Mohammed  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Terdshan,  1473.  Next  to 
the  capture  of  Constantinople,  Mohammed  deemed  this  his  greatest  victory. — Ed. 

3  War  between  Venice  and  the  Turks  began  in  1463  and  lasted  till  1477. 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE      85 

1456-1480 

ing  his  word  for  the  safety  of  all  within  it.  Mohammed  signed 
the  capitulation;  and  when  the  garrison  had  marched  out  and 
laid  down  their  arms  he  put  all  of  them,  except  the  Greeks,  to 
death  with  the  cruelest  tortures.  Paul  Erizzo  was  sawn  in  two 
by  his  orders.  The  daughter  of  the  Venetian  general,  the  young 
and  fair  Anne  Erizzo,  was  dragged  to  the  Sultan's  tent,  but  the 
Christian  maiden  preferred  death  to  dishonor,  and,  unmoved  by 
either  promise  or  threat,  she  w^as  killed  by  the  slaves  of  the  angry 
tyrant. 

The  unconquered  Scanderbeg  died  in  1467,  and  the  state  he 
had  created  died  with  him.  Albania  and  the  district  of  Herzegovina 
were  united  with  the  Sultan's  dominions.  These  conquests  brought 
the  Turkish  arms  into  more  extensive  contact  w^ith  the  possessions 
of  Venice  along  the  eastern  coasts  of  the  Adriatic.  In  1477  a 
powerful  Turkish  army  marched  into  the  territory  of  Friuli,  at  the 
northern  extremity  of  that  sea,  and  menaced  Venice  itself.  The 
Venetians  formed  fortified  camps  at  Gradina  and  Fogliania,  and 
carried  a  line  of  entrenchments  from  the  mouth  of  the  Isonzo  to 
Gasrz.  But  the  Turks,  in  the  October  of  that  year,  passed  their 
lines.  Omar  Pasha,  the  Ottoman  general,  next  passed  the  Tagl- 
iamento,  a  stream  destined  to  become  illustrious  in  after  warfare. 
The  Turkish  troops  spread  themselves  w^ithout  resistance  over  all 
the  rich  level  country  as  far  as  the  banks  of  the  Piave;  and  the 
trembling  senators  of  Venice  saw  from  their  palace-roofs  the  north- 
ern horizon  glow  with  the  light  of  burning  towns  and  villages.  The 
Turks  retired  in  November,  loaded  with  booty.  Venice  eagerly 
concluded  a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  Sultan,  which  (according  to 
one  Italian  historian)  contained  a  stipulation  by  which  the  re- 
public was  to  aid  the  Sultan,  if  attacked,  with  a  fleet  of  100  galleys, 
and  the  Sultan  was,  in  case  of  like  necessity,  to  send  100,000  Turk- 
ish cavalry  against  the  enemies  of  Venice. 

The  subjugation  of  Italy  was  a  project  which  Mohammed, 
though  often  obliged  to  delay,  had  never  abandoned.  •  In  1480  he 
prepared  to  carry  it  into  execution  on  a  scale  of  military  and  naval 
preparation  equal  to  the  grandeur  of  the  enterprise;  and  at  the 
same  time  he  resolved  to  tjuell  the  sole  formidable  enemy  that  yet 
remained  near  the  heart  of  his  dominions.  The  strong  island  of 
Rhodes  was  still  in  the  possession  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem,  who  had  established  themselves  there  in  1311  and 
gallantly  maintained  their  sovereignty  of  the  island   as  an  inde- 


86  TURKEY 

1480 

pendent  power  for  upward  of  a  century  and  a  half.  Three  rene- 
gades from  the  order  liad  incited  the  Suhan  to  attack  Rhodes,  by 
giving  him  plans  of  its  fortifications  and  promising  that  it  would 
be  easily  captured  by  forces  which  the  Turks  could  employ  against 
it.  Mesih  Pasha  was  sent  to  capture  Rhodes  in  the  April  of  1480 
with  a  fleet  of  160  galleys,  a  powerful  army,  and  a  large  part  of 
the  heaviest  artillery.  The  Ottoman  Pasha  effected  a  landing  on 
the  island,  and  after  capturing  some  inferior  posts  he  formed 
his  lines  of  siege  against  the  city  itself,  which  is  built  on  the  northern 
extremity  of  the  isle.  The  Grand  Master  of  the  knights,  Peter 
d'Aubusson,  defended  the  city  with  indomitable  fortitude  and  con- 
summate skill ;  but  it  must  have  fallen  had  it  not  been  for  the 
ill-timed  avarice  or  military  rigor  of  the  Turkish  commander.  After 
a  long  siege  and  many  severe  encounters  the  Turks  made  a  gen- 
eral assault  on  July  28,  1480.  Their  artillery  had  opened  a 
wide  rent  in  the  walls;  their  numbers  were  ample;  their  zeal 
was  never  more  conspicuous.  In  spite  of  the  gallantry  of  the 
Christian  knights,  the  attacking  columns  had  gained  the  crest  of 
the  breach ;  and  the  Ottoman  standard  was  actually  planted  on 
the  walls,  whtsn  Mesih  Pasha  ordered  a  proclamation  to  be  made 
that  pillage  was  forbidden,  and  that  all  the  plunder  of  the  place 
must  be  reserved  for  the  Sultan.  This  announcement  filled  the 
Turkish  army  with  disgust  and  disaffection.  The  soldiery  yet  out- 
side the  town  refused  to  march  in  to  support  their  comrades  who 
had  won  the  breach,  and  these  were  borne  back  and  driven  in  dis- 
order from  the  city  by  a  last  desperate  charge  of  the  chevaliers, 
who  had  marked  the  sudden  wavering  of  their  assailants.  The 
siege  was  raised,  and  Rhodes  rescued  for  half  a  century. 

On  the  same  day  that  the  Turks  advanced  to  their  unsuccessful 
assault  on  Rhodes  the  leader  of  their  other  great  expedition,  Ahmed 
Kediik,  the  conqueror  of  the  Crimea,  effected  his  disembarkation 
on  the  southern  coast  of  Italy,  where  no  Ottoman  before  him  had 
placed  his  foot.  He  landed  on  the  Apulian  shore  and  marched 
against  Otranto,  which  was  then  considered  the  key  of  Italy.  His 
fleet  cast  anchor  in  the  roads,  and  the  city  was  promptly  and 
fiercely  assailed  both  by  sea  and  by  land.  The  resistance  of 
Otranto,  though  spirited,  was  brief.  The  place  was  stormed  on 
August  II,  1480.  Out  of  a  population  of  22,000,  the  greater  num- 
ber were  massacred  without  mercy,  and  the  wretched  survivors  sub- 
jected to  the  worst  atrocities  of  Turkish  warfare. 


1481 


CONQUEST     OF     CONSTANTINOPLE       87 


Mohammed  was  now  master  of  a  strong  city  and  harbor,  which 
secured  an  entrance  for  his  armies  into  Italy.  His  arms  had  met 
reverses  at  Rhodes  when  he  was  absent;  but  he  resolved  to  con- 
duct the  next  enterprise  in  person.  Early  in  the  spring-  of  1481 
the  horsetails  were  planted  on  the  Asiatic  shore  of  the  Bosphorus 
as  signals  for  a  new  campaign;  but  no  one,  save  the  Sultan  him- 


COMSTANTOronS 
AND  THE  BOSFHOKUS 


ei.  'c  "      s  c  A 


self,  knew  against  which  quarter  the  power  of  Turkey  was  now  to 
be  directed.  His  maxim  was  that  secrecy  in  design  and  celerity 
in  execution  are  the  great  elements  of  success  in  war.  Once,  when 
at  the  commencement  of  a  campaign  one  of  his  chief  officers  asked 
him  what  were  the  main  objects  of  his  operations.  Alohammcd 
answered  shar])ly,  "  If  a  hair  of  my  beard  knew  them,  I  would 
|)luck  it  out  and  cast  it  into  the  fire.''  No  one  could  tell  what 
tin-one  was  menaced  by  the  host  that  now  gathered  at  the  Sultan's 
bidding;  but  while  the  musters  were  yet  incomplete,  the  expedi- 
tion was  arrested  by  the  death  of  the  Sulian,  who  expired  suddenly 
in  the  midst  of  his  army  on  ]\Iay  3,  1481. 


Chapter  VII 

POLITICAL    INSTITUTIONS   AND   GOVERNMENT 
UNDER    MOHAMMED   II 

THE  personal  character  of  Mohammed  11.  has  been  already 
discussed;  nor  would  we  willingly  turn  again  to  a  repul- 
sive subject.  What  he  accomplished  as  a  conqueror  for 
the  advancement  of  the  Ottoman  power  has  been  made  apparent 
in  the  narrative  of  his  reign,  but  it  would  be  injustice  to  pass  over 
his  political  institutions;  and  we  may  conveniently  take  this  occa- 
sion of  surveying  generally  the  internal  organization  of  the 
Turkish  Empire. 

From  the  time  when  Othman  first  killed  his  uncle  in  full  council 
for  contradicting  his  schemes,  to  the  self-imposed  limitations  of  the 
Sultans  during  the  last  few  years,  there  is  no  trace  in  Turkish  his- 
tory of  any  civil  constitutional  restraint  upon  the  will  of  the  ruling 
sovereign.  There  is  indeed  a  popular  tradition  among  the  Turks 
that  the  Sultan  has  a  right  to  put  to  death  seven  men,  and  no 
more,  in  each  day  without  any  cause,  save  that  it  is  his  pleasure 
so  to  do.  But  even  the  limitation  of  arbitrary  homicide  which 
this  tradition  imports  has  never  been  real ;  and  abundant  instances 
may  be  found  in  the  reigns  of  Selim  I.,  of  ]\Iurad  IV.,  Mohammed 
IV.,  and  of  Mohammed  the  Conqueror  himself,  where  far  greater 
numbers  have  been  sacrificed  without  form  of  trial  at  the  royal 
command.  The  title  of  "  Hunkiar,"  the  "  Manslayer,"  is  (or 
till  lately  has  been)  one  most  commonly  used  by  the  subjects  of 
the  Sultan  in  speaking  of  their  sovereign,  not  as  conveying  any 
censure  or  imputation  of  tyranny,  but  in  simple  acknowledgment 
of  his  absolute  power  of  life  or  death.  Only  the  person  of  the 
mufti,  the  chief  of  the  men  of  law,  has  been  supposed  to  be  in- 
violable, an  exception  doubtful  even  in  theory  and  unimportant 
in  practice,  as  the  Sultan  ccnild  depose  a  refractory  mufti  when- 
ever he  pleased,  and  tlie  inviolability  of  the  individual  must  cease 
with  the  loss  of  ofiice.     The  sovereign's  power  is  absolute  over 

88 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  89 

property  as  well  as  over  person ;  but  the  Sultans  have  ever  refrained 
from  seizing  property  that  has  been  consecrated  to  pious  uses. 
Such  an  act  would  have  been  regarded  as  sacrilegious  by  zealous 
Mohammedans,  and  have  been  probably  followed  by  an  insurrec- 
tion. Nor,  in  practice,  has  private  property  suffered  in  Turkey 
from  royal  rapacity,  except  in  the  case  of  officers  in  the  service  of 
the  government  whose  wealth  has  always  been  subject  to  confisca- 
tion. All  honor,  commands,  and  dignities  have  been  in  the  Sul- 
tan's absolute  disposal  to  give  or  to  take  away  as  he  pleases;  and 
all  his  Mohammedan  subjects  are  equal  before  him,  none  having 
any  privilege  of  birth,  either  from  family  or  from  place  of  nativity, 
one  over  the  other. 

But  though  free  from  the  barriers  of  civil  law,  and  unchecked 
by  the  existence  of  any  privileged  aristocracy,  no  Turkish  Sultan 
could  openly  disregard  with  impunity  the  obligations  and  restraints 
of  the  religious  law  of  the  Mohammedans.  He  combines  legisla- 
tive with  executive  power ;  but  his  hatti-sherifs,  or  imperial  edicts, 
are  regarded  as  subordinate  to  the  three  primary  sources  of  law, 
w^hich  are  the  Koran,  itself  the  written  word  of  God;  the  Sunna, 
or  traditional  sayings  of  the  Prophet,  and  the  sentences  or  de- 
cisions of  the  four  first  great  Imams,  or  Patriarchs,  of  the  Mo- 
hammedan religion.  The  edicts  of  princes  are  called  Urfi,  which 
means  supplemental.  The  collection  of  the  edicts,  which  successive 
Sultans  pronounce  on  each  ecclesiastical  or  temporal  emergency 
not  provided  for  in  the  first  three  sources  of  Mohammedan  law,  is 
called  Kanounname  (the  book  or  the  code  of  canons)  from  the 
Greek  word  Kanon,  which  has  been  applied  by  the  Turkish  jurists 
to  political  as  well  as  to  ecclesiastical  legislation. 

By  ancient  and  long-continued  custom,  the  Sultan,  before  the 
execution  of  any  important  political  act,  obtains  its  sanction  by  a 
solemn  declaration,  or  Fetwah,  of  the  chief  mufti  in  its  favor.  In- 
stances occur  in  Turkish  history  where  the  refusal  of  the  mufti 
has  caused  the  sovereign  to  abandon  his  project;  and  some  writers 
have  represented  this  officer  as  exercising  an  effective  constitutional 
check  on  the  royal  prerogative,  and  possessing  a  veto  like  that  of 
the  old  Roman  tribunes,  or  the  Polish  nobles.  But  the  fact  of  the 
mufti  being  removable  from  office  at  the  royal  will  shows  how 
erroneous  are  such  theories.  When  a  resolute  and  not  unpopular 
Sultan  is  on  the  throne  the  mufti  is  a  mere  passive  instrument  in 
his  hands;  though  sagacious  rulers  in  Turkey,  as  elsewhere,  have 


90  TURKEY 

understood  the  policy  of  sometimes  showing  a  seeming  deference 
to  judicial  rebuke;  and  the  deep  devotion  of  most  of  the  Sultans  to 
their  religion  must  have  made  them,  to  some  extent,  really  value 
the  solemn  opinions  of  the  highest  interpreters  of  their  law,  which 
is  based  upon  their  religion.  When,  indeed,  the  reigning  sovereign 
is  feeble  and  unsuccessful,  the  opposition  of  the  mufti,  seconded  by 
"  the  hoarse  voice  of  insurrection  "  round  the  palace  walls,  may 
be  truly  formidable;  and  his  declaration  that  the  Sultan  is  a 
breaker  of  the  divine  law,  a  tyrant,  and  unfit  to  govern,  forms  a 
sentence  of  deposition  which  popular  violence  has  often  carried 
into  effect. 

In  truth,  with  a  martial  and  high-spirited  people,  earnestly 
attached  to  the  national  religion  and  keenly  sensitive  as  to  their 
national  honor,  such  as  the  Ottoman  Turks  have  ever  been,  the 
worst  practices  of  despotic  sovereignty  are,  and  ever  must  be, 
curbed  by  the  practice  of  armed  resistance  and  popular  vengence. 
As  we  proceed  in  this  history  we  shall  often  see  the  heads  of  the 
sovereigns'  ministers  fall  at  the  people's  bidding,  and  we  shall 
become  familiar  with  scenes  of  dethronement  and  regicide.  These 
wild  and  terrible  remedies  of  the  evils  of  absolute  monarchy  have 
often  in  Turkey,  as  elsewhere,  been  cruelly  misapplied.  They 
have  often  degenerated  into  mere  military  mutinies,  or  into  the 
sordid  and  anarchical  riotings  of  a  city  rabble.  But  they  have  pre- 
served the  Ottoman  race  from  utter  prostration. 

The  implicit  and  religious  loyalty  of  the  Ottoman  nation  to  the 
House  of  Othman  (however  roughly  they  may  have  dealt  with 
individual  members  of  it)  has  been  uniform  and  undiminished. 
It  is  from  that  family  alone  that  the  Padishah  (the  Emperor),  the 
Zil-Ullah  (the  shadow  of  God,  as  the  Sultan  is  styled),  can  be 
supplied.  Governors  of  provinces  have  frequently  revolted  against 
the  sovereign  authority.  They  have  made  themselves  locally  in- 
dependent, and  carried  on  wars  on  their  own  account,  even  against 
the  sovereign  himself.  But  they  have  always  professed  titular 
allegiance  to  the  royal  house;  nor  has  any  adventurous  seraskier 
or  pasha  ever  attempted  to  seat  a  new  dynasty  on  the  throne  of 
Constantinople.  The  certain  continuity  with  which  Sultans  of  the 
race  of  Othman,  in  lineal  male  descent  from  their  great  founder, 
have  for  four  centuries  held  that  throne,  offers  a  marked  contrast 
to  the  rapid  vicissitudes  with  which  imperial  families  rose  and  fell 
during  the  ages  of  the  Greek  Empire.    Nor  can  the  annals  of  any 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  91 

of  the  royal  houses  of  Western  Christendom  show  us,  hke  the 
Turkish,  an  unbroken  succession  of  thirty  sovereigns  without  the 
scepter  ever  lapsing  to  the  spindle,  and  without  the  accession  of  a 
collateral  branch. 

The  will  of  the  Sultan  has  been,  from  the  earliest  period 
of  Turkish  history,  the  mainspring  of  the  Ottoman  Government; 
and  in  demonstrating  its  plenary  iiuportance  we  have  been  led 
far  beyond  the  times  of  the  conqueror  of  Constantinople.  In  con- 
tinuing our  examination  of  the  Turkish  institutions  as  organized 
by  the  legislation  of  that  prince,  there  will  be  less  need  to  deviate 
from  chronological  regularity. 

The  figurative  language  of  the  institutes  of  Mohammed  II., 
still  employed  by  his  successsors,  describes  the  state  under  the  mar- 
tial metaphor  of  a  tent.  The  Lofty  Gate  of  the  Royal  Tent  (where 
Oriental  rulers  of  old  sat  to  administer  justice)  denotes  the  chief 
seat  of  government.  The  Italian  translation  of  the  phrase,  ^' La 
Porta  Suhlima,"  has  been  adopted  by  Western  nations  w^ith  slight 
modifications  to  suit  their  respective  languages ;  and  by  "  the  Sub- 
lime Porte  "  we  commonly  mean  the  Imperial  Ottoman  Govern- 
ment. The  Turkish  legists  and  historians  depict  the  details  of 
their  government  by  imagery  drawn  from  the  same  metaphor  of 
a  royal  tent.  The  dome  of  the  state  is  supported  by  four  pillars. 
These  are  formed  by:  ist,  the  Viziers;  2d,  the  Kadi  el  Askars 
(judges)  ;  3d,  the  Defterdars  (treasurers)  ;  and  4th,  the  Nis-chan- 
dyis  (the  secretaries  of  state).  Besides  these,  there  are  the  Outer 
Agas,  that  is  to  say,  the  military  rulers;  and  the  Inner  Agas,  that 
is  to  say,  the  rulers  employed  in  the  court.  There  is  also  the  order 
of  the  Ulema,  or  men  learned  in  the  law. 

The  Viziers  were  regarded  as  constituting  the  most  important 
pillar  that  upheld  the  fabric  of  the  state.  In  Mohammed's  time 
the  Viziers  were  four  in  number.  Their  chief,  the  Grand  Vizier, 
is  the  highest  of  all  officers,  both  of  the  dignitaries  of  the  sword 
and  of  the  pen.  The  legal  order  supplied  the  second  pillar  of  the 
state.  The  chiefs  of  the  legal  order  were,  in  the  time  of  Moham- 
med IT.,  the  two  Kadi  el  Askars,  who  respectively  presided  over 
the  judicial  establishments  of  Europe  and  Asia.  The  other  high 
legal  dignitaries  were,  ist,  the  Kho-dya,  who  was  the  tutor  of  the 
Sultan  and  of  the  princes  royal ;  2(1,  the  ]\Iufti,  the  authoritative 
expounder  of  the  law:  and  3(1,  the  Judge  of  Constantinople.  As 
has  been  mentioned,  the  third  and  fourth  state  pillars  consisted  of 


92  TURKEY 

the  officers  of  tlie  Exchequer,  who  were  called  Defterdars,  and 
of  the  secretaries,  who  were  termed  Nis-chandyis. 

The  great  council  of  state  was  named  the  Divan;  and  in  the 
absence  of  the  Sultan  the  Grand  Vizier  was  its  president.  The 
other  Viziers  and  the  Kadi  el  Askars  took  their  stations  on  his 
right,  the  Defterdars  and  the  Nis-chandyis  on  his  left.  The  Tes- 
keredyis  (or  officers  charged  to  present  reports  on  the  condition 
of  each  department  of  the  state)  stood  in  front  of  the  Grand  Vizier. 
The  Divan  was  also  attended  by  the  Reis-Effendi,  a  general  secre- 
tary, whose  power  afterward  became  more  important  than  that 
of  the  Nis-chandyis ;  by  the  Grand  Chamberlain,  and  a  Grand  Mar- 
shal, and  a  train  of  other  officers  of  the  court.  The  Grand  Vizier 
had  the  power  of  convoking  a  special  divan  at  his  own  palace  when 
he  judged  it  necessary,  and  to  him  was  intrusted  the  custody  of  the 
imperial  seal. 

Besides  the  military  Agas,  who  were  very  numerous,  many 
officers  in  the  civil  departments  held  the  rank  of  Aga,  which 
means  ruler.  The  administration  of  the  provinces  was  in  the  time 
of  Mohammed  II.  principally  intrusted  to  the  Begs  and  Begler 
Begs.  These  were  the  natural  chiefs  of  the  class  of  feudatories, 
whom  their  tenure  of  office  obliged  to  serve  on  horseback  in  time 
of  war.  They  mustered  under  the  Sanjak,  the  banner  of  the  chief 
of  their  district,  and  the  districts  themselves  were  thence  called 
Sanjaks,  and  their  rulers  Sanjak-begs.  The  title  of  Pasha,  so 
familiar  to  us  when  speaking  of  a  Turkish  provincial  ruler,  is  not 
strictly  a  term  implying  territorial  jurisdiction  or  even  military 
authority.  It  is  a  title  of  honor,  meaning  literally  the  Shah's  or 
sovereign's  foot,  and  implying  that  the  person  to  wdiom  that  title 
was  given  was  one  whom  the  sovereign  employed.  The  classical 
reader  will  remember  that  among  the  ancient  Persians  the  king's 
officers  were  called  the  king's  eyes  and  the  king's  hands.  The 
title  of  Pasha  was  not  at  first  applied  among  the  Ottomans  exclu- 
sively to  those  officers  who  commanded  armies,  or  ruled  provinces 
or  cities.  Of  the  first  five  pashas  that  are  mentioned  by  Ottoman 
writers  three  were  literary  men.  By  degrees  this  honorary  title  was 
appropriated  to  those  whom  the  Sultan  employed  in  war,  and  set  over 
districts  and  important  towns ;  so  that  the  word  "  Pasha  "  became 
almost  synonyuKJiis  witli  the  word  governor.  The  title  "Padi- 
shah," wliich  the  Sultan  himself  bears  and  which  the  Turkish 
diplomatists  have  been  very  jealous  in  allowing  to  Christian  sov- 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  93 

ereigns,  is  an  entirely  different  word,  and  means  the  great,  the 
imperial  Shah  or  Sovereign.'* 

In  the  time  of  Mohammed  II.  the  Ottoman  Empire  contained 
in  Europe  alone  thirty-six  Sanjaks  or  banners,  round  each  of 
which  assembled  about  400  cavaliers.  The  entire  military  horse 
and  foot  of  the  empire  in  both  continents  was  more  than  100,000, 
without  reckoning  the  irregular  bands  of  the  Akindji  and  Azabs. 
The  ordinary  revenues  of  the  state  amounted  to  more  than  2,000,- 
000  ducats. 

The  Janissaries  were  still  the  main  strength  of  the  Turkish 
armies.  Mohammed  increased  their  number,  yet  he  had  never 
more  than  12,000  under  arms.  But  when  we  remember  to  how 
great  a  degree  the  other  nations  of  that  age  relied  on  their  cavalry, 
and  neglected  the  composition  and  equipment  of  their  infantry,  we 
can  well  understand  the  advantage  which  the  presence  of  a  chosen 
body  of  perfectly  trained  foot  soldiers  in  the  Turkish  armies  must 
have  given  them  in  pitched  battles,  and  still  more  in  sieges  and 
other  elaborate  operations  of  warfare.  The  English  and  the  Swiss 
were  the  only  two  Christian  nations  of  that  period  which  sent  into 
the  field  a  well-armed  infantry,  not  raised  from  the  mere  rabble, 
but  from  the  valuable  classes  of  the  population ;  and  the  Turkish 
saber  never  clashed  with  the  English  bills  and  bows,  or  with  the 
heavy  halberds  of  Helvetia. 

The  pay  and  the  privileges  of  the  Janissaries  were  largely 
augmented  by  the  conqueror  of  Constantinople :  and,  as  the  Turk- 
ish power  was  extended  in  Europe,  care  was  taken  to  recruit  that 
chosen  corps  from  children  who  were  natives  of  that  continent  rather 
than  among  the  Asiatics.  The  levies  for  that  purpose  were  gen- 
erally made  in  Albania,  Bosnia,  and  Bulgaria.  It  is  said  that  there 
was  seldom  need  to  employ  force  in  collecting  the  requisite  number 
of  suitable  children,  and  that  the  parents  were  eager  to  obtain  the 
enrollment  of  their  boys  in  the  list  of  Janissary  recruits.  This,  if 
true,  is  rather  a  proof  of  the  moral  depravity  of  the  Christian 
population  which  the  Ottomans  subdued  than  of  any  mildness  of 
the  Ottomans  in  enforcing  the  institutions  of  Khalil  Tchendereli. 
It  is  also  stated  that  no  compulsion  was  used  to  induce  the  young 
recruits  to  leave  the  Christian  and  adopt  the  Mohammedan  faith : 

^  Francis  I.  was  the  first  luiropcan  sovereign  to  wliom  the  Turks  accorded 
the  title  of  Padishah.  It  was  not  conceded  to  the  Holy  Roman  Emperor  till 
1606,  and  not  to  tlie  Russian  sovereigns  till  1774. — Ed. 


94  TURKEY 

but  this  was  a  mere  pretext  of  forbearance ;  as,  from  the  early  age 
at  which  the  children  were  selected,  it  would  be  absurd  to  suppose 
that  they  were  free  agents  in  .following  the  new  religious  rites 
and  repeating  the  new  prayers  which  were  taught  them  as  soon 
as  they  entered  the  training  schools  of  the  Janissaries.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  compulsory  enrollment  and  conversion  of  youths 
taken  in  war  was  often  practiced,  as  in  the  instance  of  the  young 
Genoese  nobles,  who  became  the  captives  of  Mohammed  at  the 
conquest  of  Kaffa. 

The  attention  which  the  Ottomans  paid  to  their  artillery,  and 
to  the  adoption  of  every  improvement  in  military  engineering, 
must  have  been  another  great  cause  of  their  superiority  to  the  na- 
tions wdiose  brave  but  tumultuous  and  ill-provided  armies  they 
encountered.  Nor  is  the  care  which  their  Sultans  and  Pashas  be- 
stowed upon  what  in  modern  military  language  would  be  termed 
the  ordnance  and  commissariat  departments,  less  remarkable.  The 
Greek  Chalcondylas,  the  contemporary  of  Murad  II.,  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  Ottoman  armies,  after  describing  their  number,  the 
excellence  of  their  organization,  and  the  strictness  of  their  disci- 
pline, mentions  the  corps  that  were  especially  employed  in  keeping 
the  roads  on  the  line  of  march  in  available  condition ;  he  speaks  of 
the  abundant  supply  of  provisions  that  was  always  to  be  found  in 
their  well-arranged  and  symmetrical  camps;  and  he  notices  the 
large  number  of  beasts  of  burden  which  ahvays  accompanied  a 
Turkish  army,  and  the  employment  of  a  special  corps  to  ensure 
the  proper  transport  of  provisions  and  military  stores.  There  was 
certainly  no  state  of  Christendom  during  the  fifteenth  or  sixteenth 
century  which  cared  for  the  well-being  of  its  soldiers  on  such 
seemingly  generous  but  truly  economical  principles.  The  cam- 
paigns of  Mohammed  himself,  especially  that  against  Constanti- 
nople, and  those  of  his  grandson  Sultan  Selim,  furnish  many 
instances  of  the  enlightened  liberality  and  forethought  with  which 
the  medieval  Turks  provided  their  soldiery  with  those  material 
instruments  and  adjuncts  of  warfare  the  importance  of  which,  in 
order  to  enable  an  army  "  to  go  anywhere  and  do  anything  "  has 
been  so  fully  taught  by  Wellington  in  the  present  age. 

When  the  Ottomans  conquered  a  country,  the  territory  was 
divided  into  tlu'ee  portions.  Part  became  ecclesiastical  property, 
and  was  devoted  to  pious  and  charitable  purposes,  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  mosques,  the  public  schools,  the  hospitals,  and  other 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  95 

institutions  of  a  similar  character.  The  lands  appropriated  to  these 
purposes  were  called  Vaks  or  Vakoufs.  A  second  part  became 
full  private  property,  resembling  the  allodial  lands  in  medieval 
Christendom.  This  property  was  subject  to  different  liabilities, 
according  to  the  creed  of  its  owner.  If  held  by  a  Mussulman,  it 
was  called  Ashriie,  that  is  to  say,  tithable,  and  the  holder  was 
obliged  to  pay  a  tithe  of  its  produce  to  the  state.  This  was  the 
only  burden  attached  to  it.  If  left  in  the  possession  of  a  Christian, 
its  holder  paid  tribute  (kharaj)  to  the  state,  which  consisted  of  a 
capitation  tax,  and  also  of  a  tax  levied  on  the  estate,  which  was 
sometimes  a  fixed  sum  according  to  its  extent,  and  was  sometimes 
an  impost  on  its  proceeds  varying  from  an  eighth  to  one-half. 
The  remaining  part  of  the  conquered  country  became  domain-land, 
including,  ist,  those  of  which  the  revenues  were  appropriated  to 
the  state  treasury  or  miri;  2d,  unoccupied  and  waste  lands  (of 
which  the  amount  is  large  in  Turkey)  ;  3d,  the  private  domain  of 
the  Sultan;  4th,  escheated  and  forfeited  lands;  5th,  the  appanages 
of  the  Sultan's  mother  and  other  members  of  the  blood  royal;  6th, 
lands  assigned  to  the  offices  filled  by  Viziers;  7th,  lands  assigned 
to  Pashas  of  the  second  rank;  8th,  lands  assigned  to  the  ministers 
and  officers  of  the  palace;  and,  9th,  the  military  fiefs,  the  Ziamets 
and  Timars.  These  last  formed  the  largest  class  of  the  domain- 
lands,  and  are  the  objects  of  most  interest  to  the  student  of 
comparative  history. 

The  smallest  fief  or  portion  of  conquered  land  granted  out  to 
a  distinguished  soldier  was  called  a  Timar,  and  generally  contained 
from  three  to  five  hundred  acres.  Each  fief  was  to  furnish  in  time 
of  war  an  armed  horseman  for  each  3000  aspres  of  its  revenue, 
like  the  knight's  fee,  which  was  the  integer  of  English  feudal 
array.  The  larger  fiefs  or  Ziamets  comprehended  upward  of  five 
hundred  acres,  and  there  was  a  still  higher  class  of  fiefs,  called 
Begliks  or  lordships.  The  general  name  for  the  holders  of  mil- 
itary fiefs  was  Spahi,  a  Cavalier,  a  title  which  exactly  answers  to 
those  which  we  find  in  the  feudal  countries  of  Christian  Europe. 
The  Ziamets  and  Timars  appear  to  have  been  generally  hereditary 
in  the  male  line.  When  any  became  vacant  by  failure  of  heirs  or 
by  forfeiture  for  misconduct,  the  Begler  Beg  of  the  district  filled 
up  the  vacancy,  his  nomination  being  subject  to  approval  by  the 
i'orte.  The  higher  rank  of  Beg  or  Bey,  and  the  still  higher  rank 
of  Begler  Beg,  were  not  at  first  hereditary,  but  were  conferred  by 


96  TURKEY 

the  Sultan  on  individuals  selected  by  him.  It  was,  however,  usual 
to  let  the  rank  and  estate  of  a  Beg  pass  from  father  to  son,  and  in 
later  times  the  custom  of  hereditary  descent  grew  often  into  a 
right,  there  being  a  considerable  difference  in  this  respect  among 
the  various  provinces  of  the  empire. 

We  seem  to  have  here  before  us  the  essential  elements  of 
feudalism;  and  we  might  naturally  expect  to  find  a  feudal  aris- 
tocracy developing  itself  in  Turkey,  and  aggrandizing  itself,  as 
in  medieval  Christendom,  at  the  expense  both  of  the  monarchy  and 
commonalty.  We  shall,  in  fact,  find  such  an  aristocracy  growing 
up  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but  not  until  we  come  to  the  recent 
century  and  a  half  of  decline  and  corruption  which  preceded  the 
reforms  of  Sultan  Mahmud  II.  and  of  the  late  Sultan  Abdul 
Medjid.  Such  an  aristocracy  did  not  exist  during  the  ages  of 
Ottoman  progress  and  splendor.  The  causes  of  its  non-existence 
during  that  period  are,  perhaps,  to  be  principally  found,  ist,  in 
the  high  personal  energies  and  abilities  of  the  Sultans  under  whom 
the  Turkish  conquests  were  effected  and  the  Turkish  Empire  con- 
solidated; 2d,  in  the  existence  ol  the  Janissary  force;  3d,  in  the 
effects  of  the  religion  of  the  Turks,  both  in  elevating  the  au- 
thority of  the  sovereign  and  in  maintaining  a  feeling  of  equality 
among  all  his  Mohammedan  subjects,  and,  4th,  in  the  absence  of 
that  habitual  aptitude  for  public  assemblies  which  is  the  charac- 
teristic of  nations  that  contain  a  considerable  element  of  Germanic 
or  Scandinavian  race. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  feudal  system  of  medieval 
Europe  was  principally  fashioned  and  matured  during  the  reign 
of  feeble  and  unsuccessful  princes  who  were  engaged  in  repeated 
and  calamitous  contests  not  only  with  barbarous  invaders  and  do- 
mestic temporal  rebels,  but  with  the  bishops  and  the  Popes  of  their 
church.  But  let  us  suppose  a  succession  of  princes,  such  as 
Charlemagne  and  his  father,  to  have  continued  among  the  Franks, 
and  vvc  sliall  readily  understand  that  the  haughty  peers  and  in- 
subordinate noblesse  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  with 
their  rights  of  private  warfare,  of  subinfeudation,  and  territorial 
jurisdiction,  would  never  have  arisen  in  France.  We  shall  still 
more  fully  realize  to  our  minds  the  difference  if  we  suppose  the 
Frankish  sovereigns  to  have  been,  like  the  Turkish  Sultans,  the 
heads  bf>tli  of  the  church  and  state,  and  to  have  combined  in  their 
own  persons  the  claims  of  both  Pope  and  Emperor.     And  if  we 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  97 

look  to  the  history  of  England  we  shall  clearly  see  that  a  feudal 
system  of  baronial  reforms,  as  well  as  of  baronial  aggrandize- 
ments, never  could  have  grown  up  under  successive  rulers  of  the 
stamp  of  Henry  VIIL 

The  fact  is  indisputable  (to  whatever  cause  we  assign  it)  that 
the  Ottoman  Empire  employed  the  military  spirit  of  feudalism  for 
national  defense  and  for  conquest,  but  kept  clear  (during  its 
flourishing  ages)  of  the  social  and  political  influences  both  for 
good  and  for  bad  which  feudalism  produced  in  the  west  of  Europe. 
No  feudal  nobility  existed  among  the  Turks  until  the  period  of 
the  decline  of  the  empire,  when  the  Dereh  Begs,  or  lords  of  the 
valleys,  as  the  mutinous  feudatories  termed  themselves,  made 
themselves  hereditary  chiefs,  and,  fortified  in  their  strongholds 
and  surrounded  by  their  armed  vassals,  defied  their  sovereign  and 
oppressed  their  dependents.  But  except  this  period  (which  the 
new  reforms  terminated),  the  Ottomans  have  never  had  a  nobility 
or  noblesse,  or  a  caste  or  class  of  any  kind  that  was  privileged  by 
reason  of  birth.  All  the  Mohammedan  subjects  of  the  Sultan 
(who  are  not  in  a  state  of  domestic  slavery)  are  on  a  level  be- 
neath him.  Equality  in  the  eye  of  the  law  among  the  Turks  them- 
selves is  a  social  fact,  as  well  as  a  legal  theory.  Neither  law  nor 
popular  opinion  ever  recognized  in  Turkey  any  superior  claim  of 
one  part  of  the  nation  to  the  enjoyment  of  civil  or  military  offices, 
such  as  the  noblesse  of  France  possessed  over  the  roturiers.  No 
surprise  or  indignation  was  ever  felt  if  the  Sultan  elevated  the 
poorest  Osmanli  from  the  toils  of  a  common  artisan  or  laborer  to 
the  highest  dignity;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  deposed  Vizier  or 
Seraskier  descends  to  an  inferior  employment,  or  into  the  mass  of 
the  Moslem  population,  without  loss  of  caste  or  any  change  in  his 
future  civil  rights  and  capabilities.  With  a  few  exceptions  (such 
as  that  of  the  remarkable  house  of  the  Kiuprilis),  family  names 
are  unknown  in  Turkey.  There  could  not  be  a  stronger  proof  of 
tlie  entire  absence  of  aristocracy  from  her  institutions. 

There  is  another  element  of  European  civilization  the  ana- 
logue of  which  appears  among  the  Ottomans.  This  is  the  mu- 
nicijial,  or  the  principle  of  local  self-government  in  local  mat- 
ters. Each  trade  or  craft  has  its  guild  (esnaf)  and  every  village 
has  its  municipality.  The  inhabitants  choose  their  own  elders  or 
head-men,  wlio  assess  and  collect  tlic  amount  of  public  contribu- 
tions imposed  upon  the  community,  manage    the    municipal  funds, 


98  TURKEY 

which  are  in  some  cases  considerable,  act  as  arbitrators  in  minor 
disputes,  attest  important  contracts,  and  are  the  customary  organs 
of  remonstrance  against  official  oppression.  This  excellent  system 
is  not  confined  to  the  Ottomans  themselves,  but  it  flourishes  among 
the  Greeks,  the  Armenians,  and  the  Christian  Bulgarians  under 
their  sway.  It  is  believed  that  these  nations  acquired  it  from  the 
Turkish  conquest,  and  the  boon  may  be  thought  to  outbalance 
much  of  the  misery  that  has  fallen  upon  the  Rayas  from  the  same 
quarter. 

The  Ulema,  the  order  of  men  learned  in  the  law,  has  been 
mentioned  as  supplying,  according  to  the  institutes  of  Mohammed 
II.,  one  of  the  four  pillars  of  the  Turkish  state.  The  predecessors 
of  Mohammed  II.,  especially  Orkhan,  had  been  zealous  in  the 
foundation  of  schools  and  colleges;  but  Mohammed  surpassed 
them  all,  and  it  was  by  him  that  the  "  Chain  of  Ulema  "  was  or- 
ganized, and  the  regular  line  of  education  and  promotion  for  the 
legists  and  judges  of  the  state  was  determined.  The  conqueror  of 
Constantinople  knew  well  that  something  beyond  mere  animal 
courage  and  military  skill  w^as  requisite  in  order  to  maintain  as 
well  as  to  create  a  great  empire.  Eminent  himself  for  learning 
and  in  the  acquirements  of  general  science,  Mohammed  provided 
liberally  for  the  encouragement  of  learning  and  science  among  his 
people.  He  knew  also  well  that  to  secure  the  due  administration 
of  justice  it  is  necessary  that  the  ministers  of  justice  should  be  re- 
spected; and  that  in  order  for  them  to  be  respected,  it  is  necessary 
that  they  should  not  only  have  learning  and  integrity,  but  rank  and 
honor  in  the  state,  and  that  they  should  be  raised  above  the  temp- 
tations and  anxieties  of  indigence.  Mohammed  established  and 
endowed  numerous  public  schools  of  the  higher  order,  or  colleges, 
called  Medresses,  in  addition  to  the  elementary  schools,  the  Mek- 
tebs,  that  are  to  be  found  in  every  quarter  of  every  town  and  in 
almost  every  large  village  in  Turkey.  To  become  a  member  of 
the  Ulema  it  w^as  necessary  to  commence  and  complete  an  elab- 
orate course  of  study  of  the  law^,  to  pass  repeated  examinations, 
and  to  take  several  successive  degrees.  While  care  was  thus  taken 
to  make  the  Ulema  consist  of  men  of  the  highest  learning  and 
abilities,  great  outward  honor,  liberal  endowments,  and  many  im- 
portant privileges  w^re  conferred  on  those  who  attained  that  rank. 
The  Ulema  supplies  all  the  professors  in  the  high  schools,  who 
are  called  Aluderrls;  and  from  this  order  also  are  chosen  all  the 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  99 

ministers  of  justice,  including  the  Kadis,  or  judges  of  the  smaller 
towns  and  rural  districts;  the  Mollas,  or  judges  of  the  principal 
cities;  the  Istambul  Effendi,  the  judge  and  inspector-general  over 
the  city  of  Constantinople ;  the  Kadiaskers,  or  supreme  judges 
of  Rumelia  and  Anatolia ;  and  the  Mufti,  the  importance  of  whose 
office  has  been  already  considered.  It  is  to  be  carefully  remem- 
bered that  the  Ulema  is  not  an  ecclesiastical  body,  except  so  far 
as  law  in  Mohammedan  countries  is  based  on  the  Koran.  The 
actual  ministers  of  public  worship,  such  as  the  Imans,  who  pro- 
nounce the  public  prayers,  the  Sheiks  or  preachers,  and  others, 
form  a  very  subordinate  part  of  the  Ulema,  There  is  no  country 
in  which  the  clergy,  properly  so  called,  have  less  authority  than  in 
Turkey,  or  where  the  legal  profession  has  more.  It  ought  also  to 
be  recorded  to  the  honor  of  the  Ottomans  that  more  respect  is 
shown  among  them  than  in  any  Christian  nation  to  the  school- 
master, and  to  all  who  are  eminent  for  possessing  intellectual  en- 
dowments themselves,  or  for  their  skill  in  guiding  others  to  acquire 
them. 

Hitherto  we  have  been  examining  the  institutions  of  the 
Turkish  Empire  with  reference  chiefly  to  the  dominant  Mohammed- 
ans. They  are  yet  to  be  regarded  with  reference  to  the  conquered 
but  unconverted  races,  the  Rayas,  who  have  always  formed  the 
large  majority  of  the  population  in  European  Turkey,  and  a  very 
considerable  proportion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Asiatic  provinces. 
We  must  also  consider  the  position  of  the  slaves. 

The  Koran,  while  it  enjoins  war  against  unbelievers,  requires 
the  Mohammedan  to  spare  the  peoples  of  the  Books  (a  term 
including  the  Christians  and  the  Jews),  on  their  submission  to  pay 
tribute.  *'  The  bended  head  is  not  to  be  stricken  off  " ;  such  is  the 
maxim  of  the  Turkish  law.  It  was  once  asked  of  the  j\Iufti,  "  If 
eleven  Mussulmans  without  just  cause  kill  an  infidel,  who  is  a 
subject  of  the  Padishah  and  pays  tribute,  what  is  to  be  done?" 
The  judicial  reply  was,  "  Though  the  ^Mussulmans  should  be  a 
thousand  and  one,  let  them  all  die."  The  Rayas  (as  the  tributary 
Christians  are  called  in  Turkey)  were  entitled  to  protection  for 
property  as  well  as  for  person,  and  to  the  free  exercise  of  their 
religion.  It  is  written  in  the  Koran,  "  My  mission,"  saith  the 
Prophet,  "  is  to  combat  the  unbelievers  until  they  say  '  there  is  no 
God  but  God.'  When  they  have  uttered  these  words,  they  have 
preserved  their  blood  and  their  goods  from  all  attack  from  mc.    0£ 


100  TURKEY 

their  own  belief,  they  must  give  account  to  God."  The  earliest 
capitulation  between  Mussulmans  and  Christians,  being  the  capitu- 
lation granted  by  the  Caliph  Omar  to  the  Christians  of  Jerusalem 
in  637  A.  D.,  and  the  charter  given  by  Mohammed  II.  to  the  Greeks 
of  Constantinople,  were  alike  framed  in  the  spirit  of  this  text.  The 
Christian  subjects  of  Mohammedan  power  were  bound  to  pay 
tribute ;  they  were  forbidden  the  use  of  arms  and  horses ;  they  were 
required  to  wear  a  particular  costume  to  distinguish  them  from  the 
true  believers,  and  to  obey  other  social  and  political  regulations, 
all  tending  to  mark  their  inferior  position.  In  Turkey,  the  terrible 
tribute  of  children  was  an  additional  impost  on  the  Rayas.  Other- 
wise, it  is  correctly  said  that  the  lot  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the 
Ottomans  w^as  less  severe  than  that  of  the  Jews  in  the  various 
states  of  medieval  Christendom.  During  the  later  ages  of  cor- 
ruption and  anarchy  in  the  Turkish  Empire  the  Rayas  were  un- 
questionably made  the  victims  of  numberless  acts  of  lawless  cruelty 
and  brutal  oppression;  but  these  were  the  results  of  the  decay  of 
the  Ottoman  Government,  and  not  the  effects  of  its  institutions  as 
ordained  in  the  ages  of  its  vigor. 

Domestic  slavery  has  always  existed  among  the  Turks,  as 
among  other  Oriental  nations,  but  in  a  milder  form,  and  with 
brighter  hopes  for  those  who  undergo  it,  than  the  history  of 
servitude  among  the  various  races  and  in  the  various  ages  of  the 
world  usually  exhibits.  The  Turkish  law  protects  the  slave 
from  arbitrary  cruelty  and  brutal  or  excessive  chastisement;  and 
the  general  kindness  of  the  Turkish  character  (when  not  excited 
by  war  or  religious  fanaticism)  has  been  a  still  more  effectual 
safeguard.  The  Koran  inculcates  the  duty  of  treating  a  faithful 
servant  with  generosity ;  and  teaches  that  the  man  who  sets  free 
his  fellow-creature  from  slavery  does  much  to  set  himself  free 
frc^m  the  infirmities  of  human  nature  and  from  the  torments  of 
hell  fire.  The  emancipated  slave,  if  a  true  believer,  becomes  at 
once  the  equal  in  civil  rights  of  all  the  other  Mohammedan  sub- 
jects of  the  Sultan.  Many  of  the  ablest  officers,  both  in  war  and 
in  peace,  of  the  Sublime  Porte  have  been  originally  slaves :  and  a 
wide  field  has  thus  ever  been  open  to  her  rulers  for  choosing  men 
of  tried  ability  and  devotion  for  the  highest  and  most  confidential 
employments. 

Another  important  source  whence  the  Ottoman  ranks  have 
been  recruited    has  been  the  long  stream  of  voluntary  deserters 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  101 

from  the  Cross.  The  Turkish  court  and  camp,  where  no  heed  was 
taken  of  a  man's  pedigree  or  birth-place,  but  where  distinction, 
wealth,  and  power  were  open  to  all  the  bold  and  brave,  who  would 
profess  the  creed  of  the  Prophet,  presented  irresistible  attractions 
to  many  of  the  Rayas,  and  also  to  those  strong  and  daring  spirits 
from  abroad,  for  whom,  either  through  their  own  faults  or  the 
fault  of  their  fellow-countrymen,  all  similar  careers  in  Christen- 
dom were  closed.  We  may  observe  the  working  of  this  attraction 
even  in  the  recent  times  of  Turkish  adversity.  It  was  far  more 
effective  when  the  Crescent  was  the  symbol  of  victory  and  con- 
quest. 

If  we  look  to  the  period  when  the  Turkish  power  was  at 
its  height,  the  period  of  the  reign  of  Suleiman  L  and  Selim  II., 
we  shall  find  that  out  of  ten  Grand  Viziers  of  this  epoch  eight  were 
renegades.  Of  the  other  high  dignitaries  of  the  Porte  during  the 
same  period  we  shall  find  that  at  least  twelve  of  her  best  generals 
and  four  of  the  most  renowned  admirals  were  supplied  to  her  by 
Christian  Croatia,  Albania,  Bosnia,  Greece,  Hungary,  Calabria, 
and  Russia.  There  was  no  fear  of  these  apostates  from  the 
Christian  faith  ever  halting  in  zeal  for  their  new  masters.  Their 
sincerity  as  to  their  adopted  creed  might  be  doubtful,  but  not  so 
their  animosity  against  that  faith  which  they  had  deserted ;  and 
Christendom  for  ages  supplied  her  foes  with  the  ablest,  the  most 
unscrupulous,  and  the  most  deadly  leaders  against  herself. 

All  the  circumstances  of  the  settlement  of  the  Turks  in  Europe 
tended  to  keep  up  in  them  the  spirit  of  war  and  the  capacity  as 
well  as  the  zeal  for  future  victories.  By  enrolling  the  flower  of 
the  children  of  the  subjugated  European  provinces  as  Janissaries, 
by  the  impost  of  tribute  money,  by  the  sale  of  captives,  and  the 
acquisition  of  other  plunder,  by  parceling  out  the  conquered  lands 
into  fiefs,  wherein  the  best  soldiers  of  the  victorious  army  were 
planted  as  military  colonists — each  conquest  was  made  to  supply 
the  means  for  further  conquests,  and  Turkish  war  grew  by  what 
it  fed  on.  Tlie  Moslem  occupants  of  the  rich  and  beautiful  lands 
east  of  the  Adriatic  felt  their  pride  in  their  own  prowess  daily  con- 
firmed, and  their  fervor  for  the  faith  of  the  Prophet  daily  rekindled 
by  the  sight  of  the  Christian  Rayas  around  them,  on  whom  fell  the 
chief  burdens  of  taxation  and  manual  toil,  "  a  weaponless  herd, 
whose  duty  was  obedience  and  subjection." 

This  long-continued   position   of  unquestionable  and   unques- 


102  TURKEY 

tioned  superiority,  "with  nothing  to  provoke  the  strong  to  need- 
less cruelty,"  may  have  conduced  to  develop  in  the  Turkish 
character  that  dignity  of  manner,  that  honorable  self-respect,  that 
truthfulness,  honesty,  and  sense  of  justice,  that  gentleness  and 
humanity  even  toward  the  brute  creation,  which  the  bitterest  ene- 
mies of  the  Ottomans  confess,  and  which  is  the  theme  of  uniform 
admiration  with  foreigners  who  have  been  dwellers  in  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  Lying  and  theft  are  the  vices  of  weakness;  and  a  morbid 
fondness  for  practicing  petty  tyranny  over  creatures  weaker  than 
themselves  is  the  special  sin  of  those  who  have  been  subject  to  op- 
pression. But  it  would  be  eminently  unjust  to  attribute  the  char- 
acteristic virtues  of  the  Turks  solely  to  the  circumstance  of  their 
having  long  been  a  conquering  people  settled  among  a  subject 
population,  though  such  a  fact  must  have  had  its  influence.  Those 
virtues  are  found  among  the  Ottoman  Turks  of  Asia,  where  the 
number  of  Rayas  is  far  less  than  westward  of  the  Dardanelles,  as 
well  as  among  the  sparse  Moslems  of  European  Turkey :  nor  have 
those  virtues  been  found  to  decay  with  the  declining  fortunes  of 
their  empire.  JMuch  is  due  to  the  moral  precepts  of  their  creed, 
which  ensures  sobriety  and  cleanliness,  as  well  as  benevolence,  in- 
tegrity, and  charity,  among  its  true  disciples.  But  the  Turks  are 
also  distinguished  above  other  Mohammedan  nations  for  their 
high  personal  qualities,  though  these  are  alloyed  with  many  evil 
traits,  which,  however,  are  to  a  great  extent  the  peculiar  vices 
of  their  men  in  power.  Among  no  people  are  the  injurious 
effects  of  court  intigue,  and  of  elevation  to  high  authority 
and  wealth  upon  individual  character,  so  marked  as  among 
the  Ottomans.  Modern  observers  have  been  repeatedly  struck 
by  the  metamorphosis  of  the  high-minded  and  generous  coun- 
try gentleman  of  Anatolia  or  Rumelia,  exemplary  in  all  the 
relations  of  domestic  life,  into  a  sordid  grasping  tyrant  and 
a  selfish  voluptuary  of  the  worst  description,  when  invested 
with  the  power  and  exposed  to  the  temptations  of  a  Pasha. 
And  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  renegades  from  Chris- 
tendom, of  whom  so  large  a  portion  of  the  Turkish  officials  has 
been  comjjosed,  have  generally  set  the  worst  example  in  all  re- 
spects to  the  rulers  of  native  origin.  The  ferocious  cruelty  which 
has  too  often  marked  the  Turks  in  warfare,  and  their  ruthless 
fanaticism,  when  roused  by  the  cry  that  their  religion  is  in  danger, 
are  seeming  contradictions  to  the  general  benevolence  and  gentle- 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  103 

ness  of  character  which  have  been  ascribed  to  them  as  a  people; 
but  they  are  seeming  contradictions  only.  The  Turk  is,  in  ordi- 
nary life,  calm,  mild,  and  indulgent,  not  because  he  is  void  of 
the  fiercer  passions,  but  because  he  is  self-trained  to  control 
them. 

The  Sultan's  summons  to  war  still  meets  a  ready  response 
from  the  inherent  bravery  of  every  Turk:  and  Europe  has  of  late 
years  justly  admired  the  gallantry  with  which  the  Ottomans  have 
risen  to  defend  their  land  and  their  faith  from  almost  overwhelm- 
ing enemies,  and  amid  every  circumstance  of  difficulty  and  dis- 
couragement. If  such  is  the  martial  spirit  of  the  people,  now  that 
they  advance  to  the  campaign  "  with  no  fear  and  little  hope,"  what 
must  it  have  been  in  the  olden  time,  when  almost  unvarying  victory 
crowned  their  arms,  and  when  honor  and  wealth  were  the  prompt 
rewards  of  distinguished  valor.  We  may  imagine  the  excitement 
and  the  exultation  which  the  announcement  of  a  new  war  and  the 
summons  to  a  fresh  enterprise  must  have  created  throughout  the 
Moslem  world  on  either  side  of  the  Dardanelles,  from  the  Euphra- 
tes to  the  Danube,  from  the  Crimea  to  the  Peloponnesus,  in  the 
days  of  Mohammed  the  Conqueror  or  Suleiman  the  IMagnificent. 
The  feudal  chivalry  left  their  Ziamets  and  Timars  and  mustered 
beneath  the  banner  of  the  neighboring  Beg  or  Pasha,  each  vying 
with  the  other  in  the  condition  and  magnificence  of  his  horse  and 
accouterments  and  in  the  display  of  his  band  of  armed  and 
mounted  retainers.  The  Ziam  who  signalized  his  prowess  might 
hope  for  elevation  to  the  rank  of  Beg;  and  the  Timariot  who 
brought  in  ten  prisoners  or  ten  enemies'  heads  was  entitled  to 
have  his  minor  fief  enlarged  into  a  Ziamet.  The  ^Moslem  who  did 
not  yet  possess  either  Ziamet  or  Timar  and  was  not  enrolled  in  the 
regular  paid  troops  still  served  as  a  zealous  volunteer  on  horse  or 
foot,  according  to  his  means,  and,  besides  the  prospect  of  enriching 
himself  by  the  plunder  of  the  province  that  was  to  be  invaded,  or 
the  city  that  was  to  be  besieged,  he  looked  forward  to  win,  by 
daring  deeds  performed  among  the  Akindji  or  Azabs  one  of  the 
Timars,  that  at  the  end  of  the  war  would  be  formed  out  of  the 
newly-conquered  territory,  or  which  the  casualties  of  the  campaign 
would  leave  vacant.  The  regular  troops,  the  Janissaries,  and  the 
royal  horseguards,  who  fought  immediately  under  the  Sultan's  eye, 
and  whose  trade  was  war,  were  even  more  eager  for  the  oppor- 
tunities of  booty  and  promotion.     Above  all,  religious  enthusiasm 


104  TURKEY 

roused  the  Moslem  of  every  class  to  share  in  the  Holy  War  against 
the  misbelievers.  The  Koran  teaches,  indeed,  that  war  is  in  itself 
an  evil,  and  pronounces  that  "  Man  is  the  work  of  God.  Cursed 
be  he  who  dares  to  destroy  God's  workmanship."  But  it  teaches 
also  that,  when  there  is  war  between  the  true  believers  and  the 
enemies  of  Islam,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  Mussulman  to  devote  to 
such  a  war  his  property,  his  person,  and  his  life.  The  Koran 
divides  the  world  into  two  portions,  the  House  of  Islam,  Dar-ul- 
Islam,  and  the  House  of  War,  Dar-ul-harb. 

It  has  generally  been  represented  by  Western  writers  on  the 
institutes  of  Mohammedanism,  and  on  the  habits  of  Mohammedan 
nations,  that  the  Dar-ul-harb^  the  House  of  War,  comprises  all 
lands  of  the  misbelievers;  so  that  there  is,  or  ought  to  be,  per- 
petual hostility  on  the  part  of  the  true  believers  against  the 
dwellers  in  Dar-ul-harb^  although  actual  warfare  may  be  suspended 
by  treaty. 

There  is  even  a  widely  spread  idea  among  superficial  talkers 
and  writers  that  the  holy  hostility,  the  "  Jehad  "  of  Mussulmans 
against  non-Mussulmans,  is  not  limited  to  warfare  between  nation 
and  nation,  but  that  "  it  is  a  part  of  the  religion  of  every  Moham- 
medan to  kill  as  many  Christians  as  possible,  and  that  by  counting 
up  a  certain  number  killed  they  think  themselves  secure  of  Heaven." 
But  careful  historical  investigators  and  statesmen  long  practically 
conversant  with  Mohammedan  populations  have  exposed  the 
fallacy  of  such  charges  against  those  who  hold  the  creed  of 
Islam. 

"  The  craving  of  the  Mohammedans,  as  such,  for  Christian 
blood  is  purely  a  myth."  Their  Prophet  was  certainly  a  stern 
iconoclast,  and  taught  the  duty  of  unremitting  warfare  against 
idolaters.  In  the  Koran  he  bids  his  disciples  "  Fight  on  till  there 
be  no  temptation  to  idolatry,  and  the  religion  becomes  God's 
alone."  But  the  Prophet  also  taught  them  with  regard  to  Jews 
and  Cb.ristians,  "  Dispute  not  except  with  gentleness ;  but  say  unto 
them,  We  believe  in  the  revelation  w^hich  has  been  sent  down  to  us, 
and  also  in  that  which  hath  been  sent  down  to  you,  and  our  God 
and  your  God  are  one."  A  country  which  is  under  Christian 
rulers,  but  in  which  ]\Iohammedans  are  allowed  free  profession  of 
their  faith,  and  peaceable  exercise  of  their  ritual,  is  no  portion  of 
the  House  of  War,  of  the  Dar-ul-harb;  and  there  is  no  religious 
duty  of  warfare,  no  "  Jehad,"  on  the  part  of  true  Mussulmans 


POLITICAL     INSTITUTIONS  105 

against  such  a  state.  This  has  been  of  late  years  formally  de- 
termined by  the  chief  authorities  in  IMohammedan  law  with  respect 
to  British  India,  and  the  principle  is  practically  acknowledged  by 
the  British  being  publicly  prayed  for  in  every  mosque  through- 
out her  Indian  dominions,  which  contain  a  population  of  not  less 
than  40,000,000  of  Mohammedans. 

But,  unquestionably,  Mohammedans  of  all  ages  have  believed 
and  have  acted  on  the  belief  that  when  there  is  actual  warfare  be- 
tween a  state  that  holds  the  faith  of  Islam  and  enemies  who  are 
of  a  different  creed  it  is  a  holy  war  on  the  part  of  the  Moslems. 
Certain  pacific  texts  of  the  Koran  may  be  cited  that  appear  to  some 
extent  to  qualify  the  fierce  spirit  of  others,  but  the  general  tone  of 
the  Mohammedan  Sacred  Book  is  eminently  warlike,  and  must  in 
the  palmy  days  of  Islam  have  stirred  the  bold  blood  of  the  Turks, 
like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet,  to  wrest  fresh  cities  and  provinces 
for  Allah  from  the  Giaour.  The  Turkish  military  code  breathes 
the  full  inspiration  of  the  words  of  the  Prophet,  "  In  the  shade  of 
the  crossing  scimitars  there  is  Paradise."  Every  Mohammedan 
is  required  to  be  a  soldier.  Every  soldier  killed  in  battle  for  the 
defense  of  the  faith  is  styled  schedid  or  martyr.  And  the  Moslem 
who  deserts  his  post  or  flies  before  the  foe  is  held'  to  sin  against 
both  God  and  man :  his  punishment  is  death  in  this  world  and  hell 
fire  in  the  next.  No  enemy  with  arms  in  liis  hands  is  entitled  to 
quarter;  and  war  is  held  to  make  all  modes  of  destruction  lawful. 
Captives,  women,  and  children,  and  all  that  can  do  Mohammedans 
no  harm  are  ordered  to  be  spared ;  but  those  among  the  enemy, 
who  from  their  abilities,  station,  or  other  causes,  may  hereafter 
become  dangerous  to  the  true  believers,  may  be  slain,  though  they 
have  ceased  to  resist.  All  cruelty  and  mutilation  are  forbidden, 
and  all  breach  of  faith.  Capitulations  must  be  observed,  and  prom- 
ises to  an  enemy  kept  by  whomsoever  they  were  given.  If  the 
sovereign  disapprove  of  the  terms,  he  must  punish  his  Moham- 
medan officer  who  made  them.  The  Turk  is  never  to  make  a  disad- 
vantageous treaty  unless  when  every  mode  of  warfare  has  been 
tried,  and  under  pressure  of  the  direst  necessity.  But  such  a  treaty, 
if  once  made,  is  to  be  kept  strictly. 

In  the  general  view  which  we  have  been  taking  of  the  Turkish 
institutions  we  have  lost  sight  of  the  individual  Mohammed  the 
Conqueror.  But  our  attention  is  forcibly  recalled  to  him  when  we 
cite  one  of  the  cannns  of  llie  Turkisli  svstem  of  government,  with- 


106  TURKEY 

out  notice  of  which  our  survey  would  be  incomplete.  It  is  the 
legislation  of  imperial  fratricide.  Mohammed  II.  ordained  it  by 
the  following  part  of  his  institutes:  "The  majority  of  my  jurists 
have  pronounced  that  those  of  my  illustrious  descendants  who 
ascend  the  throne,  may  put  their  brothers  to  death,  in  order  to 
secure  the  repose  of  the  world.  It  will  be  their  duty  to  act 
accordmgly»" 


Chapter  VIII 

BAYEZID    II.    AND    PRINCE    DJEM.     1481-1512 

ON  the  death  of  Sultan  Mohammed  II.  a  struggle  for  the 
sovereignty  ensued  between  his  two  sons,  Prince  Bayezid 
and  Prince  Djem,  in  which  success  rested  with  the  elder 
but  not  the  braver  or  abler  of  the  brothers.  Both  the  princes  were 
absent  from  Constantinople  at  the  time  of  their  father's  decease. 
Prince  Bayezid,  then  aged  thirty-five,  was  at  Amassia,  the  capital 
of  the  province  which  he  ruled;  and  Prince  Djem,  who  was  twenty- 
two  years  old,  was  in  Caramania,  of  which  his  father  had  made 
him  governor.  Bayezid  was  of  a  contemplative,  melancholy  dispo- 
sition, simple  in  his  habits,  austere  in  his  devotions,  fond  of  poetry 
and  speculative  philosophy,  whence  came  the  surname  of  Sofi  (the 
Mystic),  which  is  given  to  him  by  many  of  the  Ottoman  historians. 
Djem  had  the  energy,  the  ambition,  the  love  of  pomp,  and  the 
voluptuousness  which  had  marked  his  father  the  Conqueror;  and, 
without  sharing  his  brother's  fondness  for  metaphysics  and  ab- 
struse learning,  Djem  was  more  eminent  even  than  the  other  mem- 
bers of  his  highly  gifted  family  for  his  love  of  poetry,  and  his  own 
poems  are  ranked  among  the  most  beautiful  in  Turkish  literature. 
On  the  death  of  Sultan  Mohammed  being  known  in  the  camp  and 
capital,  the  Janissaries  rose  in  open  anarchy,  plundered  the  houses 
of  the  rich  Jews  and  other  wealthy  inhabitants,  and  put  to  death 
the  Grand  Vizier,  who  had  vainly  endeavored  to  disguise  from 
them  the  fact  of  the  Sultan's  death.  As  this  minister  was  known 
to  be  a  supporter  of  the  interests  of  Prince  Djem,  the  Janissaries 
were  easily  led  by  the  adherents  of  the  elder  brother  to  pronounce 
in  favor  of  Prince  Bayezid;  and  the  rest  of  the  army  followed  their 
example.  Messengers  had  been  dispatched  to  each  prince  by  their 
respective  partisans  in  the  capital ;  but  the  bearer  of  the  important 
tidings  to  Prince  Djem  was  waylaid  and  slain  on  the  road;  and 
Bayezid  obtained  the  inestimable  advantage  over  his  competitor  of 
first  learning  that  the  throne  was  vacant,  and  first  reaching  Con- 
stantinople to  claim  it.     The  Janissaries  appeared  before  him  on 

107 


108  TURKEY 

1481-1482 

his  arrival  at  tlie  capital  and  asked  forgiveness  for  their  late  acts 
of  violence;  but  these  formidable  suppliants  asked  it  in  battle  ar- 
ray, and  accompanied  their  petition  by  a  demand  for  an  increase 
of  pay,  and  for  a  donative  on  their  new  sovereign's  accession. 
Bayezid  obeyed  all  their  requests;  and  thenceforth  the  distribution 
of  large  sums  of  money  at  the  commencement  of  each  reign  among 
these  Mohammedan  praetorians  became  a  regular  custom  in  Tur- 
key, alike  burdensome  to  the  treasury  and  disgraceful  to  the 
Sultan,  until  it  was  abolished  by  the  Sultan  Abdul-Hamid  during 
the  war  with  Russia,  three  hundred  years  after  the  time  of  the 
second  Bayezid, 

Djem  was  not  of  a  disposition  to  resign  the  sovereignty  to  his 
brother  without  a  struggle;  and,  remembering  the  bloody  law  by 
which  their  father  had  made  imperial  fratricide  a  state  maxim,  the 
young  Ottoman  prince  may  be  said  to  have  armed  as  much  for  life 
as  for  empire.  A  civil  war  followed,  in  which  the  abilities  of  the 
veteran  Ahmed  Kediik  the  conqueror  of  Kaffa  and  Otranto,  and 
the  treachery  of  some  of  Djem's  principal  followers  gave  the  vic- 
tory to  Bayezid.  A  proposition  had  been  made  before  the  battle 
by  Djem  to  his  brother  to  divide  the  empire,  Bayezid  taking  the 
European  and  Djem  the  Asiatic  provinces.  Bayezid  refused  to 
listen  to  such  a  scheme ;  and  when  the  aged  Sultana,  Seldjoukatoun, 
who  was  the  daughter  of  Mohammed  I.  and  the  great-aunt  of  the 
two  rivals,  came  to  his  camp  and  endeavored  to  move  his  fraternal 
feelings  in  Djem's  favor,  Bayezid  answered  with  stern  brevity  by 
citing  the  Arab  proverb,  "  There  is  no  relationship  among  princes." 
Nevertheless,  the  Mystic  Sultan,  though  resolute  to  maintain  his 
rights,  and  to  suffer  no  dismemberment  of  the  Ottoman  Empire, 
showed  no  remorseless  eagerness  for  his  brother's  death  till  after 
Djem  had  proved  that,  so  long  as  life  was  in  him,  he  would  strive 
for  a  kingly  crown  at  Bayezid's  expense.  After  his  first  defeat 
on  June  20,  1481,  and  the  dispersion  of  his  army  Djem  fled  to 
the  dominions  of  the  Sultan  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  where  he  was  fa- 
vorably recci\e(l  and  sheltered  for  a  year,  during  which  time  he 
visited  the  holy  cities  of  Medina  and  Mecca.  He  and  a  daughter 
of  ]\Iohamme(l  I.  are  the  only  members  of  the  Turkish  royal  family 
that  have  made  that  pilgrimage.  In  1482  Djem,  assisted  by  the 
Egyptian  sovereign  and  some  of  the  malcontent  Ottoman  com- 
manders in  Asia  Alinor,  renewed  the  war,  Imt  was  again  defeated 
and  forced  to  seek  safely  in  foreign  lands.     He  did  not  return  to 


B  A  Y  E  Z  I  D     1 1  109 

148Z 

his  former  protector,  but  sought  the  means  of  passing  to  the 
Ottoman  dominions  in  Europe,  in  the  hopes  of  reviving  the  civil 
war  with  effect  in  that  continent,  though  unsuccessful  in  the 
Asiatic,  as  Prince  Musa  had  done  during  the  interregnum  after  the 
defeat  of  the  first  Bayezid.  With  this  view,  he  requested  the 
Grand  Master  of  Rhodes  to  grant  him  a  temporary  shelter  and 
the  means  of  passing  into  Europe. 

The  Knights  of  St.  John  assembled  in  solemn  chapter  to  dis- 
cuss Prince  Djem's  requisition;  and  it  was  finally  resolved  that 
it  was  consonant  with  the  dignity  and  policy  of  the  Order  to 
receive  the  Ottoman  prince.  Accordingly,  on  July  23,  1482, 
Djem,  with  thirty  attendants,  landed  at  Rhodes  and  entered  on 
a  long  period  of  captivity  most  discreditable  to  the  Christian 
potentates  by  whom  he  was  nominally  protected,  but  who  in  reality 
made  him  the  subject  of  barter  and  sale,  of  long  imprisonment,  and 
ultimately  of  treacherous  murder.  He  was  received  at  Rhodes  by 
the  Grand  Master  and  his  knights  with  ostentatious  pomp  and 
every  semblance  of  hospitable  generosity.  But  it  was  soon  thought 
desirable  to  remove  him  from  Rhodes  to  one  of  the  commanderies 
which  the  order  possessed  in  France.  It  was  considered  by  D'Au- 
busson  and  his  comrades  that  by  removing  the  Ottoman  prince 
from  their  island  they  would  be  better  able  to  evade  the  demands 
which  Sultan  Bayezid  was  sure  to  make  for  the  surrender  of  his 
brother  to  him,  and  that  there  would  be  less  risk  of  losing  their 
prisoner  by  assassination.  Before  Djem  left  Rhodes,  D'Aubusson 
took  the  precaution  of  obtaining  his  signature  to  a  treaty,  by  which 
Djem  bound  himself,  in  the  event  of  his  ever  becoming  Sultan,  to 
conditions  highly  favorable  to  the  Order. 

D'Aubusson,  whose  skill  as  an  unscrupulous  diplomatist  was 
at  least  equal  to  his  gallantry  as  a  soldier  (which  we  have  had  oc- 
casion to  admire  while  tracing  the  times  of  iMohanmied  11.),  next 
sent  an  embassy  to  the  reigning  Sultan  in  order  to  secure  all  possi- 
ble advantages  from  having  the  Pretender  in  the  power  of  the 
knights.  It  was  agreed  that  there  should  be  peace  and  free  trade 
between  the  Order  and  the  Porte,  and  that  the  Sultan  should  pay 
a  yearly  sum  of  forty-five  thousand  ducats,  ostensibly  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  brother,  but  in  reality  as  the  price  of  his  compulsory 
detention  in  some  of  the  possessions  of  the  knights. 

Before  Djem  had  thrown  himself  into  the  hands  of  the  Chris- 
tians, Bayezid  had  offered  him  the  revenues  of  the  province  which 


110  TURKEY 

1482-1489 

he  had  formerly  governed,  on  condition  of  his  living  quietly  at 
Jerusalem.  Djem  refused  this  offer,  and  demanded  the  cession  of 
certain  provinces  to  him  in  full  sovereignty.  Bayezid  replied  that 
"  Empire  is  a  bride  whose  favors  cannot  be  shared."  On  Djem's 
persisting  in  his  resolution  to  seek  through  Christian  help  the  means 
of  renewing  the  civil  war,  Bayezid  endeavored  unremittingly  to 
compass  his  death,  or  at  least  to  purchase  his  imprisonment. 

The  high-spirited  but  unhappy  prince,  whose  adventures  and 
poetical  talents  have  made  him  a  favorite  character  in  Prankish  as 
well  as  Turkish  history,  was  landed  by  a  galley  of  the  knights  at 
Nice  in  November,  1482.  Djem  expressed  his  gratification  with 
the  beautiful  scenery  of  the  Frankish  city,  but  was  urgent  to  com- 
mence his  journey  to  Hungary,  whence  he  designed  to  pass  into 
Rumelia.  His  conductors  informed  him  that  as  he  was  on  French 
territory  he  ought  not  to  depart  without  the  formal  permission  of 
the  king  of  the  country.  Djem  accordingly  sent  one  of  his  suite  to 
Paris,  and  was  assured  by  the  chevaliers  that  his  messenger  might 
easily  travel  thither  and  return  in  twelve  days.  But  care  was  taken 
to  arrest  the  Turkish  envoy  on  the  road;  and  Djem  lingered  for 
many  months  at  Nice,  closely  watched,  though  treated  with  apparent 
respect,  and  in  vain  expectation  of  a  messenger  from  the  French 
court.  At  last  the  plague  broke  out  in  that  city,  which  gave  the 
knights  a  plausible  excuse  for  conveying  their  prisoner  to  a  com- 
mandery  in  the  interior  of  the  kingdom.  The  greater  number  of  the 
Ottoman  prince's  native  followers  were  now  forcibly  removed  from 
him ;  and  Djem  was  confined,  first  at  Roussillon,  then  at  Puy,  and 
afterward  at  Sassenage,  where  he  inspired  the  fair  Philippine  Hel- 
ena, the  daughter  of  the  lord  of  the  castle,  with  an  ardent  passion, 
which  was  not  unreturned,  and  love  for  a  time  lightened  the  weary 
hours  of  the  captive.  For  seven  years  the  Ottoman  prince  was 
detained  in  France.  The  remonstrances  against  such  treatment 
which  he  addressed  to  the  knights  and  to  the  Christian  princes  and 
chiefs  by  whom  he  was  visited,  and  his  repeated  attempts  to  escape, 
were  fruitless,  though  he  was  an  object  of  interest  to  all  Christen- 
dom, and  many  kings  negotiated  with  the  Grand  Master  D'Aubus- 
son,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  possession  of  the  claimant  to  the 
Ottoman  throne.  D'Aubusson  purposely  protracted  the  discussion 
of  terms,  and  was  unwilling  to  put  an  end  to  a  custody,  which  al- 
though little  creditable,  was  eminently  lucrative  to  the  Knights  of 
St.  John.      Djem's  family,  consisting  of  his  mother,  his  wife,  and 


B  A  Y  E  Z  I D     1 1  111 

1489 

his  infant  children,  were  at  Cairo.  D'Aubusson  had  the  unknightly 
craft  to  obtain  twenty  thousand  ducats  from  the  wife  and  mother 
of  his  victim,  under  pretense  that  the  prince  was  immediately  to  be 
set  at  liberty  and  that  the  money  was  necessary  for  the  expenses  of 
his  voyage.  This  was  in  addition  to  the  forty-five  thousand  ducats 
which  Sultan  Bayezid  paid  annually  as  the  price  of  his  brother's 
captivity. 

At  last  Charles  VIII.  of  France  interposed,  not  to  set  Prince 
Djem  free,  but  to  transfer  him  from  the  hands  of  the  Knights  of 
Rhodes  to  the  custody  of  the  Pope.  A  guard  of  fifty  French  knights 
was  appointed  to  attend  the  Turkish  prince,  and  it  was  agreed  that 
in  the  event  of  the  Pope  giving  him  up  to  any  other  Christian  sov- 
ereign without  leave  from  the  French  court,  a  sum  of  ten  thousand 
ducats  should  be  paid  as  forfeit  money  to  Charles.  The  court  of 
Rome  undertook  to  indemnify  the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  and  a  variety 
of  privileges  were  accordingly  granted  to  them  by  the  sovereign 
Pontiff;  and  D'Aubusson  himself  received  the  honor  of  being  made 
a  cardinal. 

In  1489  Prince  Djem  made  his  entry  into  Rome,  with  the 
empty  pageantry  of  honors  like  those  amid  which  he  had  eight  years 
previously  been  conducted  into  Rhodes.  He  was  lodged  in  the 
Vatican  and  formally  presented  to  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  by  the 
Grand  Prior  of  Auvergne  and  the  ambassador  of  France.  It  was 
in  vain  that  the  chamberlains  and  other  Papal  officers  urged  on 
Djem  the  necessity  of  paying  the  accustomed  homage  to  the  spiritual 
head  of  the  church  and  temporal  sovereign  of  Rome.  The  son  of 
Mohammed  the  Conqueror  would  neither  veil  the  turban  nor  bend 
the  knee,  but  walking  straight  up  to  the  Pope,  Djem  saluted  him  as 
the  cardinals  do,  by  a  kiss  on  the  shoulder.  Then  in  a  few  words, 
full  of  manly  feeling  and  princely  spirit,  Djem  asked  the  Pontiff's 
protection  and  requested  a  private  interview.  It  was  granted,  and 
Djem  then  narrated  the  hopes  deferred,  the  deceits  and  the  hard- 
ships which  he  had  undergone  during  his  captivity.  He  spoke  of 
the  cruelty  of  his  separation  from  his  mother,  his  wife,  and  his  chil- 
dren, and  of  his  earnest  desire  to  behold  them  again,  and  to  sail  to 
Fgypt  for  that  purpose.  The  tears  flowed  fast  down  the  cheeks  of 
the  unhappy  Turkish  prince  while  he  told  his  wrongs;  and  even  the 
Pope  was  moved  and  wept  as  he  listened.  But  Innocent  said  that 
for  Djem  to  sail  for  Egypt  was  incompatible  with  his  project  for 
winning  his  father's  throne;  that  the  King  of  Hungary  required  his 


112  TURKEY 

1489-1494 

presence  on  the  frontiers  of  that  kingdom ;  and  that,  above  all,  he 
ought  to  think  seriously  of  embracing  the  Christian  faith.  Djem 
replied  that  such  an  act  of  apostasy  would  irretrievably  ruin  him  in 
the  opinion  of  his  fellow-countrymen ;  and  he  proudly  stated  that  he 
would  not  be  false  to  his  religion  for  the  sake  of  the  Ottoman  Em- 
pire, or  for  the  sake  of  the  empire  of  the  world.  Innocent  did  not 
press  the  work  of  conversion  further,  but  closed  the  interview  with 
words  of  consolation  and  encouragement. 

At  this  time  there  happened  to  be  at  Rome  an  ambassador  from 
the  Sultan  of  Egypt,  and  soon  afterward  there  arrived  an  ambas- 
sador from  Sultan  Bayezid.  The  Egyptian  ambassador  sought  out 
Prince  Djem  and  prostrated  himself  before  him  as  before  the  lawful 
sovereign  of  Turkey.  Djem  learned  from  him  that  the  Rhodian 
Grand  Master  had  extorted  the  twenty  thousand  ducats  from 
Djem's  mother  and  sister  under  the  false  pretense  of  their  being 
required  for  the  voyage  from  France.  Djem  and  the  Egyptian 
envoy  complained  loudly  at  the  Papal  court  against  the  Rhodian 
Knights  for  this  fraud  and  demanded  the  restitution  of  the  money. 
The  Pope  and  Sultan  Bayezid's  ambassador  interceded  in  favor  of 
the  knights,  and  by  their  means  the  Order  was  discharged  from  the 
debt  for  five  thousand  ducats  paid  down  immediately.  The  ambas- 
sador from  the  Turkish  court  was  charged  with  the  ostensible  mis- 
sion of  presenting  to  the  Pope  certain  holy  relics  of  the  Crucifixion, 
but  he  was  also  commissioned  to  arrange  the  price  for  which  Inno- 
cent VIII.  would  pledge  himself  to  keep  Djem  within  the  Papal 
States.  Forty  thousand  ducats  a  year  was  the  sum  agreed  on  be- 
tween the  rulers  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  for  this  purpose;  and 
Djem  was  accordingly  detained  at  the  court  of  Innocent  for  three 
years,  and  on  the  death  of  that  Pontiff  the  Turkish  prince  was 
safely  guarded  in  the  Vatican  until  the  successor  to  Innocent  was 
elected.  The  new  Pope  was  Alexander  Borgia.  He  forthwith  sent 
an  ambassador  to  Bayezid  and  arranged  for  the  continuation  of 
the  payment  of  the  forty  thousand  ducats  for  the  detention  of  Djem. 
But  Borgia  also  stipulated  that  he  was  to  have  the  option  of  re- 
ceiving three  hundred  thousand  ducats  paid  down  at  once,  if  he  took 
the  shortest  and  most  effectual  means  of  securing  Djem  from  invad- 
ing Turkey,  by  juitting  him  to  death. 

Meanwhile  Charles  VIII.  invaded  Italy,  and  on  the  last  day 
of  1494  entered  Rome.  Pope  Alexander  sought  refuge  in  the  Castle 
of  St.  Angelo,  taking  Djem  with  him  as  one  of  the  most  valuable  of 


BAYEZID     II  113 

1494 

the  Papal  treasures.  Eleven  days  after  the  entry  of  the  French 
army  there  was  an  interview  between  Pope  Alexander  and  King 
Charles  for  the  purpose  of  arranging  a  treaty  of  peace.  One  of  the 
chief  conditions  was  the  transfer  of  Prince  Djem  into  Charles's 
hands.  He  accompanied  the  French  army  from  Rome  to  Naples  and 
witnessed  the  slaughters  of  Monte  Fortino  and  Monte  San  Giovanni. 
But  the  death  of  the  captive  was  determined  upon,  and  while  Italian 
and  Turkish  historians  differ  as  to  the  mode  of  the  crime,  accord- 
ing to  the  Oriental  writers,  Djem's  barber,  a  Greek  renegade,  named 
Mustapha,  inoculated  his  master  with  deadly  venom  by  wounding 
him  with  a  poisoned  razor.  They  add  that  Ivlustapha  acquired  favor 
afterward  with  Bayezid  for  this  service,  and  was  raised  by  degrees 
to  the  dignity  of  Grand  Vizier.  All  agree  that  Djem  was  murdered, 
and  died  by  a  slowly  wasting  poison.^  Sultan  Bayezid  sent  a  formal 
embassy  to  reclaim  his  remains  from  Christendom,  and  Prince  Djem 
was  buried  with  royal  pomp  at  Brusa. 

Sultan  Bayezid,  though  victorious  in  civil  war,  gained  little 
glory  in  the  encounters  of  the  Ottoman  power  with  foreign  enemies 
during  his  reign.  Immediately  on  his  accession  the  veteran  con- 
queror Ahmed  Kediik  was  recalled  from  Otranto  to  aid  Bayezid 
against  domestic  foes;  and  Ahmed's  successor,  Khaireddin,  unsup- 
ported from  Turkey,  was  obliged  to  capitulate  to  the  Duke  of  Cala- 
bria,, after  a  long  and  gallant  defense.  Thus  Italy  was  relieved 
from  the  grasp  which  the  dreaded  Ottomans  had  laid  on  her ;  nor 
was  any  lodgment  of  the  Turks  within  her  peninsula  again  effected. 
Bayezid  was  engaged  in  frequent  wars  against  the  Venetians  and 
the  Hungarians,  and  also  against  the  Poles,  which  brought  little  in- 
crease to  the  empire,  except  the  acquisition  of  the  cities  of  Lepanto, 
Modon,  and  Coron.  There  is  small  interest  in  tracing  the  details 
of  the  campaigns  of  the  Ottoman  troops  in  Europe  during  this 
reign,  marked,  as  they  are,  by  a  degree  of  ferocity  and  cruelty  on  the 
Christian  as  well  as  on  the  Turkish  side  which  is  repulsively  strik- 
ing even  in  the  history  of  medieval  warfare.  The  epoch  of  Bayezid 
II.  is  brighter  in  the  history  of  the  Turkish  navy  than  in  that  of  the 
Ottoman  armies.  Kemal  Reis,  the  first  great  admiral  of  the  Turks, 
signalized  himself  under  this  prince  and  became  the  terror  of  the 
Christian  fleets.  He  was  originally  a  slave,  and  had  been  presented 
to  the  Sultan  by  the  Capudan  Pasha  Sinan.    His  remarkable  beauty 

1  Recent  writers  believe  that  a  deliberate  system  of  intoxication  was  used  to 
tmdcrminc  Djem's  health,  and  this  and  not  poison  was  the  cause  of  his  death. — > 
Ev. 


114  TURKEY 

1483-1490 

caused  Bayezid  to  name  him  "  Kemal,"  which  means  "  Perfection," 
and  he  was  in  youth  one  of  the  royal  pages.  The  first  mention  of 
him  as  a  sea-captain  is  in  1483,  when  he  was  placed  in  command  of 
the  fleet  which  Bayezid  sent  to  ravage  the  coasts  of  Spain,  in  con- 
sequence of  an  earnest  entreaty  which  the  Moors  of  Granada  had 
sent  to  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople,  as  "  lord  of  the  two  seas  and 
the  two  continents,"  for  succor  against  the  overwhelming  power  of 
the  Spanish  Christians.  Kemal  Reis  afterward,  in  1499,  won  a 
desperate  hattle  over  the  Venetians  off  the  island  of  Sapienza  and 
materially  assisted  in  the  reduction  of  the  city  of  Lepanto.  We  find 
him  also,  in  1500,  contending  skillfully  and  boldly  against  the  far 
superior  fleets  of  the  Pope,  of  Spain,  and  of  Venice.  The  Ottoman 
marine  had  not  yet  acquired  such  an  ascendency  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean as  it  afterward  held  under  Bayezid's  grandson,  Sultan 
Suleiman. 

Bayezid's  melancholy  and  dreamy  disposition  made  him  in- 
different to  the  excitements  of  strife  and  conquest ;  and  though,  as  a 
zealous  devotee,  he  looked  on  warfare  against  the  infidels  as  meri- 
torious, and  though  sometimes,  as  an  act  of  religious  duty,  he  shared 
in  the  campaigns  of  his  troops,  his  general  policy  was  to  seek  peace 
at  almost  any  sacrifice.  As  is  usually  the  case  with  overpacific 
princes,  he  was  unfortunate  enough  to  be  entangled  against  his  will 
in  many  wars,  from  which  his  empire  acquired  little  advantage,  and 
he  himself  less  credit.  Besides  his  hostilities  with  Christian  pow- 
ers, he  was  obliged  to  oppose  by  armed  force  the  encroachments 
wdiich  the  Mameluke  Sultan  of  Egypt  and  Syria  continually  made 
on  the  Ottoman  territory  on  the  southeastern  confines  of  Asia 
Minor.  The  first  war  between  the  Ottoman  sovereigns  of  Constan- 
tinople and  the  rulers  of  Egypt  began  in  1485,  and  was  eminently 
disastrous  for  the  Turks.  Their  armies  were  repeatedly  beaten  by 
the  Mamelukes;  and  the  spirit  of  revolt  which  had  so  long  smoldered 
in  Caramania  broke  out  and  menaced  open  war.  The  Ottoman 
generals  succeeded  in  reducing  the  Caramanians  to  subjection ;  but 
Bayezid,  after  five  years  of  defeats  by  the  Egyptians,  concluded  a 
peace  with  them,  which  left  in  their  hands  three  fortresses  whicli 
they  had  conquered.  The  w^ounded  pride  of  the  Sublime  Porte  was 
soothed  by  the  pretext  that  the  three  fortresses  were  to  be  considered 
as  given  to  endow  the  holy  cities  of  Mecca  and  Medina,  of  which  the 
Egyptian  Sultan  was  ]M-otector. 

As  Bayezid  advanced  in  years    the  empire  was  again  troubled 


BAYEZID     II  115 

1509-1511 

with  domestic  dissension  and  civil  war.  He  had  made  his  sons  and 
grandsons  governors  over  provinces ;  and  as  the  Sultan's  infirmities 
increased,  his  three  surviving  sons,  Korkud,  Ahmed,  and  Selim, 
began  to  intrigue  against  each  other  with  a  view  of  securing  the  suc- 
cession. Selim  was  the  youngest  of  the  three,  but  the  ablest,  and 
the  least  likely  to  be  deterred  by  any  scruples  of  remorse  from  cut- 
ting his  way  to  the  throne  by  the  readiest  path.  He  was  governor 
of  Trebizond.  His  martial  habits  and  bold  readiness  with  tongue 
and  hand  had  made  him  the  favorite  of  the  troops;  and  he  sought 
to  aggrandize  his  influence  by  making  incursions  into  the  Circassian 
territory  on  his  own  account.  When  the  old  and  pacific  Sultan 
remonstrated  against  these  proceedings,  Selim  replied  by  demanding 
a  Sanjak  in  Europe,  so  as  to  place  him  nearer  to  the  central  seat 
of  government.  He  next  asked  permission  to  visit  his  father  at 
Adrianople,  to  pay  his  filial  respects ;  and,  on  this  being  refused,  he 
crossed  the  Black  Sea  and  advanced  to  Adrianople  with  a  retinue 
so  numerous  and  well  appointed  that  it  deserved  the  name  of  an 
army.  The  old  Sultan,  who  was  suffering  under  severe  illness, 
joined  the  forces  which  some  of  his  faithful  followers  had  collected 
for  his  defense;  but  he  wept  bitterly  on  seeing  the  standards  of 
Selim's  troops  and  at  the  prospect  of  encountering  his  own  child  in 
battle.  In  this  mood  he  was  easily  persuaded  to  negotiate  by  the 
Begler  Beg  of  Rumelia,  who  strove  to  avert  the  unnatural  conflict 
and  acted  as  mediator  between  father  and  son.  Selim  received  the 
European  government  of  Semendra ;  and  the  Sultan  promised  not 
to  abdicate  in  favor  of  his  brother  Ahmed,  who  was  known  to  be  the 
old  man's  favorite  child.  While  these  events  were  passing  in 
Europe,  Asia  Minor  was  troubled  by  the  machinations  of  the  other 
two  princes,  Korkud  and  Ahmed,  and  still  more  by  the  hordes  of 
brigands  who,  under  the  feeble  sovereignty  of  Bayezid,  long  infested 
the  kingdom,  and  at  last  formed  a  regular  army  in  conjunction  with 
the  numerous  devotees  of  the  Shiah  sect,  who  at  that  time  abounded 
in  Asia  Minor.  They  professed  unbounded  veneration  for  the  great 
Shiah  Prince,  the  Persian  ruler.  Shah  Ismail ;  and  the  leader  of  this 
mixed  force  of  ruffians  and  fanatics  took  the  name  of  Shah  Kouli, 
which  means  "  Slave  of  the  Shall" ;  but  the  Ottomans  called  him 
Sheytan  Kouli,  which  means  "  Slave  of  the  Devil."  Pie  defeated 
several  detachments  of  the  Sultan's  troops ;  and  at  last  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  send  the  Grand  Vizier  against  him.  The  Devil's  Slave 
resisted  skillfully  and  desperately,  and  both  he  and  the  Vizier  at  last 


116  TURKEY 

1511 

perished  in  an  obstinate  battle  which  was  fought  near  Sarimschaklik 
in  August,  1 5 1 1 . 

SeHm  took  advantage  of  these  disturbances  as  pretexts  for  his 
keeping  an  army  together  to  be  ready  for  any  emergencies  of  the 
state.  At  last  he  forcibly  entered  Adrianople  and  assumed  the 
rights  of  an  independent  sovereign.  Some,  however,  of  the  Otto- 
man soldiery  were  yet  averse  to  the  dethronement  of  their  old  sov- 
ereign, and  Bayezid  marched  upon  Adrianople  w'ith  a  true  though 
small  army.  Selim  came  out  wath  his  troops  to  meet  him,  and  the 
old  Sultan  was  with  difficulty  persuaded  to  give  the  order  to  engage 
his  rebellious  son.  At  length  Bayezid  raised  himself  on  the  cush- 
ions of  his  litter  and  called  out  to  his  army,  "  My  slaves,  you  who 
eat  my  bread,  attack  those  traitors."  Ten  thousand  loyal  soldiers 
at  once  raised  the  battle-cry  of  "  God  is  great,"  and  rushed  upon 
the  rebel  ranks.  Selim's  troops  were  broken  by  the  charge  and  fled 
in  disorder ;  and  Selim  was  indebted  for  his  safety  to  the  fleetness  of 
his  horse,  called  Karaboulut  (the  Black  Cloud),  and  to  the  devotion 
of  his  friend,  Ferhad,  who  threw  himself  in  a  narrow^  pass  betw^een 
the  flying  prince  and  the  foremost  cavaliers  of  the  pursuers.  Selim 
fled  to  Akhioli  on  the  Black  Sea,  w'here  he  embarked  for  the  Crimea. 
The  Khan  of  that  peninsula  w-as  his  father-in-law,  and  Selim  was 
soon  at  the  head  of  a  new  army  of  Tartar  allies  and  Turkish  mal- 
contents, and  in  readiness  to  strike  another  blow-  for  the  throne. 

Bayezid  anxiously  wished  to  make  his  second  son,  Ahmed,  his 
successor;  but  neither  this  prince  nor  his  elder  brother  Prince 
Korkud  was  popular  with  the  Janissaries,  who  looked  on  Selim 
as  the  fit  Padishah  of  the  warlike  house  of  Othman,  and  who  con- 
sidered the  impiety  of  his  attacks  upon  his  own  father  to  be  far 
outweighed  by  the  warlike  energy  and  relentless  vigor  which  he 
displayed.  Bayezid  had  secretly  encouraged  some  w'arlike  prepar- 
ations of  Ahmed  in  Asia;  but  the  indignation  of  the  soldiery  of  the 
capital  against  that  prince  compelled  the  old  Sultan  to  disown  his 
acts,  and  even  to  send  a  messenger  to  the  Crimea  to  Selim,  requiring 
him  to  march  to  the  protection  of  the  capital  from  Ahmed.  It  was 
winter  when  Selim  received  the  welcome  summons,  but  he  instantly 
assembled  3000  horsemen,  half  of  whom  were  Tartars,  and  hast- 
ened round  the  northwestern  coast  of  the  Euxine.  Many  of  his 
followers  perished  by  the  severity  of  the  cold  and  the  length  and 
rapidity  of  their  marches;  but  the  indomitable  Selim  still  pressed 
forward.      He  crossed  the  Dniester  on  the  ice  near  Akerman,  and, 


BAYEZID     II  117 

1512 

disregarding  an  injunction  which  the  terrified  Bayezid  sent  him  to 
repair  to  his  government  at  Semendra,  he  continued  his  progress 
toward  the  capital.  When  he  was  yet  thirty  miles  from  Constan- 
tinople, the  Aga  of  the  Janissaries  came  to  meet  him;  and  he  made 
his  entry  into  the  capital  in  almost  royal  state,  with  the  viziers  and 
other  dignitaries  of  state  in  his  train.  The  old  Sultan  had  amassed 
a  large  treasure  during  his  reign;  and  he  now  sought  to  bribe  his 
rebellious  son  back  to  obedience  by  an  immediate  donation  of  three 
hundred  thousand  ducats  and  the  promise  of  a  yearly  payment  of 
two  hundred  thousand  more.  Selim  regarded  the  offered  treasure 
as  an  additional  inducement  to  seize  the  throne,  and  refused  all  terms 
of  compromise.  Bayezid  still  occupied  the  royal  palace,  the  Serail ; 
but  on  April  25,  15 12,  the  Janissaries,  the  Spahis,  and  the  tur- 
bulent population  of  Constantinople  assembled  before  the  palace- 
gates  and  demanded  to  see  the  Sultan.  The  gates  of  the  Serail 
were  thrown  open  and  Bayezid  received  them  seated  on  his  throne. 
He  asked  them  what  it  was  they  desired,  and  the  populace  cried  with 
one  voice,  "  Our  Padishah  is  old  and  sickly,  and  we  will  that  Selim 
shall  be  the  Sultan."  Twelve  thousand  Janissaries  followed  up  the 
popular  demand  by  shouting  their  formidable  battle-cry ;  and  the  old 
Sultan,  seeing  the  people  and  the  army  against  him,  yielded,  and 
uttered  the  words,  "  I  abdicate  in  favor  of  my  son  Selim.  May 
God  grant  him  a  prosperous  reign!  "  Shouts  of  joy  pealed  round 
the  palace  and  through  the  city  at  this  announcement.  Selim  now 
came  forward  and  kissed  his  father's  hand  with  every  semblance  of 
respect.  The  old  Sultan  laid  aside  the  emblems  of  sovereignty  with 
the  calm  indifference  of  a  philosopher,  and  asked  his  successor  the 
favor  of  being  allowed  to  retire  to  the  city  of  Demotika,  where  he 
had  been  born.  Selim  escorted  him  to  the  gate  of  the  capital,  walk- 
ing on  foot  by  his  father's  litter,  and  listening  with  apparent  defer- 
ence to  the  counsels  which  the  old  man  gave  him.  But  the  de- 
throned Sultan  never  reached  Demotika:  he  died  at  a  little  village 
on  the  road  on  the  third  day  of  his  journey.  His  age,  and  his 
sufferings  both  of  mind  and  body,  sufficiently  accounted  for  his 
death ;  but  a  rumor  was  widely  spread  that  he  had  been  poisoned  by 
an  emissary  of  his  son.  The  savage  character  of  Selim  may  be 
thought  justly  to  have  exposed  him  to  suspicion;  but  there  seems  to 
have  been  no  clear  evidence  of  the  horrible  charge. 

It  is  in  the  reign  of  Bayezid  K,  that  the  ominous    name    of 
Russia  first  appears  in  Turkish  history.      In  1492  the  Czar,  Ivan 


118  TURKEY 

1512 

III.,  wrote  a  letter  to  Bayezid  on  the  subject  of  certain  exactions 
which  had  recently  been  practiced  on  Russian  merchants  in  Turkey, 
and  proposing  a  diplomatic  intercourse  between  the  two  empires. 
Three  years  afterward  Michael  Plestcheev,  the  first  Russian  am- 
bassador, appeared  at  Constantinople.  He  was  strictly  enjoined  by 
his  master  not  to  bow  the  knee  to  the  Sultan,  and  not  to  allow 
precedence  to  any  other  ambassador  at  the  Ottoman  court. 
Plestcheev  appears  to  have  displayed  such  arrogance  as  justly  to 
offend  the  Sultan.  Bayezid  stated  in  a  letter  on  the  subject  to  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea  (who  had  exerted  himself  to  promote  friend- 
ship between  the  empires)  "that  he  was  accustomed  to  receive 
respect  from  the  powers  of  the  East  and  the  West,  and  blushed  at 
the  thought  of  submitting  to  such  rudeness."  Had  Bayezid's  father 
or  son  been  on  the  Turkish  throne  the  haughty  Muscovite  would 
probably  have  received  a  sharper  chastisement  than  the  mild  mark 
of  offended  dignity  which  Bayezid  displayed  by  sending  no  am- 
bassador to  Russia  in  return.  No  one  at  Bayezid's  court  could 
foresee  that  in  the  rude  power  of  the  far  North,  whose  emissaries 
then  excited  the  contemptuous  indignation  of  the  proud  and  polished 
Osmanlis,  was  reared  the  deadliest  foe  that  the  house  of  Othman 
was  ever  to  encounter. 


Chapter    IX 

SELIM     I.   AND   THE   CONQUEST   OF   EGYPT  AND 
SYRIA.     15 12-1520 

SULTAN  SELIM  I.  was  forty-seven  years  of  age  when  he 
dethroned  his  father.  He  reigned  only  eight  years,  and  in 
that  brief  period  he  nearly  doubled  the  extent  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire.  The  splendor  of  his  conquests/  the  high  abilities  which 
he  displayed  in  literature  and  in  politics,  as  well  as  in  war,  and  the 
imperious  vigor  of  his  character,  have  found  panegyrists  among 
European  as  well  as  Asiatic  writers;  but  his  unsparing  cruelty  to 
those  who  served,  as  well  as  to  those  who  opposed  him,  has  justly 
brought  down  on  his  memory  the  indignant  reprobation  of  mankind, 
as  expressed  by  the  general  sentence  of  the  great  majority  both  of 
Oriental  and  Western  historians.  In  his  own  reign  the  wish, 
"  Mayst  thou  be  the  Vizier  of  Sultan  Selim,"  had  become  a  common 
formula  of  cursing  among  the  Ottomans.  Selim's  Viziers  seldom 
survived  their  promotion  more  than  a  month.  They  whom  he 
raised  to  this  perilous  post  knew  that  they  were  destined  for  the 
executioner's  saber,  and  carried  their  last  wills  and  testaments  with 
them   whenever  they  entered  the  Sultan's  presence. 

Unsparing  of  the  blood  of  his  relations,  his  subjects,  and  his 
ablest  servants,  Selim  was  certain  to  be  fond  of  war;  and  his  reign 
was  one  of  almost  ceaseless  carnage.  Vigorous  in  body  and  mind, 
and  indifferent  to  sensual  pleasures,  he  pursued  with  keenness  the 
martial  pastime  of  the  chase.  He  devoted  all  his  days  to  military 
duties  or  to  hunting.  He  slept  but  little,  and  employed  the  greater 
part  of  the  night  in  literary  studies.  His  favorite  volumes  were 
books  of  history  or  of  Persian  poetry.  He  left  a  collection  of  odes 
written  by  himself  in  that  language,  for  which  he  showed  a  marked 
preference.  Selim  showed  especial  favor  and  honor  to  men  of 
learning,  and  promoted  many  of  them  to  posts  of  high  dignity  and 
importance.  He  intrusted  to  the  historian  Idris  the  task  of  organ- 
izing the  newly-conquered  province  of  Kurdistan;  and  the  jurist 
Kernel  Pasha  Zade  accompanied  him  on  his  Egyptian  expedition  as 

119 


120  TURKEY 

1512 

historiographer.  Selim  was  tall  in  stature,  with  long  body  though 
short  limbs.  Contrary  to  the  example  of  his  predecessors  he  kept 
his  chin  close  shaved,  but  he  wore  enormously  large  black  mous- 
tachios,  which,  with  his  dense  and  dark  eyebrows,  contributed  to  give 
him  the  fierce  aspect  which  impressed  with  awe  all  who  beheld  him. 
His  eyes  were  large  and  fiery;  and  his  red  complexion  showed  (ac- 
cording to  the  report  of  the  Venetian  ambassador  Foscolo)  a 
sanguinary  disposition.  His  pride  met  with  a  sharp  trial  on  the 
very  first  day  of  his  reign.  The  Janissaries  resolved  to  force  from 
their  new  Sultan  a  donative,  and  drew  up  in  double  lines  along  the 
street  through  which  he  was  expected  to  pass.  They  v^^ere  to  clash 
their  arms  together  when  he  arrived,  as  an  impressive  hint  of  the 
means  which  had  given  him  the  throne,  and  of  the  means  which 
might  force  him  from  it.  Selim  was  apprised  of  their  gathering, 
and,  indignant  at  the  prospect  of  thus  passing  publicly  under  the 
yoke  of  his  own  soldiers  on  the  first  day  of  his  reign,  he  avoided  the 
humiliation  by  riding  round  in  another  direction.  He  dared  not, 
however,  refuse  the  donative;  and  a  distribution  larger  than  had 
been  made  on  any  similar  occasion  nearly  exhausted  the  treasury. 

Selim  had  acquired  the  throne  by  successful  rebellion  against 
his  father;  and  he  had  good  reason  to  dread  the  jealousy  of  his 
brothers,  who  were  in  command  of  some  of  the  best  provinces  of 
the  empire,  and  were  little  likely  to  give  up  the  imperial  heritage 
without  a  struggle.  Of  the  two  surviving  brothers  of  Selim,  the 
eldest,  Prince  Korkud,  was  childless;  the  second,  Prince  Ahmed, 
had  four  sons.  Selim  himself  had  but  a  single  son,  Prince 
Suleiman. 

At  first  Selim's  brothers  appeared  willing  to  acknowledge  him 
as  Sultan,  and  accepted  the  confirmation  in  their  respective  govern- 
ments which  he  offered.  But  Prince  Ahmed,  who  ruled  at  Amasia, 
soon  showed  his  design  of  striving  for  the  throne  by  occupying  the 
great  city  of  Brusa  and  levying  heavy  taxes  on  the  inhabitants. 
Selim  marched  instantly  into  Asia  ]\Iinor  at  the  head  of  a  powerful 
army  and  sent  a  fleet  to  cruise  along  the  coasts.  Ahmed  fled  before 
him  and  dispatched  two  of  his  sons  to  implore  assistance  from  the 
Persian  prince,  Shah  Ismail.  Selim  took  possession  of  Brusa  and 
sent  the  greater  part  of  his  army  into  winter  quarters.  Encouraged 
by  some  of  Selini"s  officers  whom  he  had  gained  over  Ahmed 
renewed  the  war  and  gained  several  slight  advantages.  Selim 
instantly  caused  his  Grand  Vizier,  who  was  one  of  the  traitors 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     121 

1513 

against  him,  to  be  strangled,  and  proceeded  to  further  executions 
of  a  more  atrocious  character.  Five  of  the  young  princes,  his 
nephews,  were  in  honorable  detention  in  the  houses  of  some  of  the 
chief  men  of  Brusa.  Selim  sent  a  body  of  Janissaries  to  the  palace 
who  strangled  the  princes  without  mercy. 

At  the  tidings  of  this  massacre,  Prince  Korkud,  who  had 
hitherto  been  quiet  in  his  government  of  Saroukhan,  saw  clearly 
what  doom  was  designed  for  himself.  He  endeavored  to  win  over 
the  Janissaries,  and  prepared  for  a  struggle  for  life  or  death  with 
Selim.  Selim  detected  his  brother's  plans,  and  without  giving  any 
intimation  of  his  discovery  or  his  purpose,  he  left  Brusa,  under 
pretense  of  a  great  hunting,  and  then  suddenly  advanced  with 
10,000  cavalry  into  Korkud's  province.  Korkud  fled  with  a 
single  attendant  of  the  name  of  Piali.  They  were  pursued  and 
captured.  Selim  sent  an  officer  named  Sinan  to  announce  to  his 
brother  that  he  must  die.  Sinan  arrived  in  the  night  at  the  place 
where  the  royal  captive  was  detained,  and,  waking  Prince  Korkud 
from  sleep,  he  bade  him  come  forth  to  death.  Korkud  demanded 
a  respite  of  an  hour,  and  employed  it  in  writing  a  letter  in  verse  to 
his  brother,  in  which  he  reproached  him  with  his  cruelty.  He  then 
gave  up  his  neck  to  the  fatal  bowstring.  Selim  wept  abundantly 
when  he  read  his  brother's  elegy.  He  carried  his  real  or  pretended 
grief  so  far  as  to  order  a  general  mourning  for  three  days ;  and  he 
put  to  death  some  Turkomans  who  had  guided  the  pursuers  of  Kor- 
kud to  his  hiding  place,  and  who  came  to  Brusa  to  ask  a  reward 
for  that  service. 

In  the  meanwhile  Prince  Ahmed  had  collected  a  considerable 
force,  and  had  gained  further  advantages  over  Selim's  forces, 
which,  if  vigorously  followed  up,  might  have  given  him  the  throne. 
But  Ahmed,  though  personally  brave,  was  far  inferior  to  his  brother 
in  energy  and  perseverance.  Selim  reinforced  his  army,  and  on 
April  24,  1 5 13,  a  pitched  battle  was  fought,  in  which  Ahmed 
was  completely  defeated  and  taken  prisoner.  His  doom  was  the 
same  as  that  of  Korkud,  and  was  executed  by  the  same  officer, 
Sinan.  Before  death  Ahmed  had  begged  to  see  the  Sultan,  but  the 
re(|uest  was  refused,  and  Selim  remarked  that  he  would  give  his 
brother  such  a  domain  as  fitted  an  Ottoman  prince.  Ahmed  under- 
stood the  words,  and  when  Sinan  entered  gave  himself  up  to  death 
without  resistance.  Before  he  was  bowstrung,  he  drew  from  his 
finger  a  jewel  said  to  e(|ual  in  value  a  year's  revenue  of  Rumelia, 


122  TURKEY 

1513 

and  charged  Sinan  to  convey  it  to  Selim  as  his  brother's  parting 
gift,  with  the  hope  that  the  Suhan  would  excuse  the  smallness  of  its 
worth.  Ahmed  was  buried  with  the  five  murdered  young  princes 
at  Brusa. 

SeHm  now  thought  himself  secure  on  the  throne,  and  prepared 
for  foreign  warfare.  Fortunately  for  Christendom,  it  was  against 
other  Mohammedan  powers  that  his  energies  were  directed,  and  he 
willingly  arranged  or  renewed  a  series  of  treaties  with  the  different 
states  of  Europe,  which  secured  tranquillity  along  the  western  fron- 
tiers of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Selim  had  not  fallen  off  from  his 
ancestors  in  zeal  for  the  faith  of  Islam.  He  was  indeed  the  most 
bigoted  of  all  the  Turkish  Sultans.  But  it  was  the  very  vehemence 
of  his  bigotry  that  made  him  hate  the  heretics  of  Islam  even  more 
than  the  Giaours  of  Christendom. 

The  schism  of  the  Sunnites  and  the  Shiites  (the  first  of  whom 
acknowledge  and  the  last  of  whom  repudiate  the  three  immediate 
successors  of  the  Prophet,  the  Caliphs  Abubeker,  Omar,  and 
Othman)  had  distracted  the  Mohammedan  world  from  the  earliest 
times.  The  Ottoman  Turks  have  been  Sunnites.  The  contrary 
tenets  have  prevailed  in  Persia ;  and  the  great  founder  of  the  Safawi 
dynasty  in  that  country,  Shah  Ismail,  was  as  eminent  for  his  zeal 
for  the  Shiites'  tenets  as  for  his  ability  in  the  council  and  his  valor 
in  the  field. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Shiites  had  begun  to  spread  among  the 
subjects  of  the  Sublime  Porte  before  Selim  came  to  the  throne;  and, 
though  the  Sultan,  the  Ulema,  and  by  far  the  larger  portion  of  the 
Ottomans,  held  strictly  to  the  orthodoxy  of  Sunnism,  the  Shiites 
were  numerous  in  every  province,  and  they  seemed  to  be  rapidly 
gaining  proselytes.  Selim  determined  to  crush  heresy  at  home  be- 
fore he  went  forth  to  combat  it  abroad ;  and  in  a  deliberate  spirit  of 
fanatic  cruelty  he  planned  and  executed  a  general  slaughter  of  all 
his  subjects  who  were  supposed  to  have  fallen  away  from  what 
their  sovereign  considered  to  be  the  only  true  faith. 

Selim  did  not  allure  his  victims  by  false  professions  of  esteem, 
or  by  profaning  the  rights  of  hospitality,  but  he  organized  a  system 
of  secret  police  throughout  his  dominions,  which  contemporary 
writers  term  admirable;  and  he  thus  obtained  a  complete  list  of  all 
the  Mohammedans  in  European  and  in  Asiatic  Turkey  who  were 
suspected  of  belonging  to  the  sect  of  the  Shiites.  The  number  of 
the  proscribed,  including  men,  women,  and  children,  amounted  to 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     123 

1514 

seventy  thousand.  Selim  distributed  troops  throughout  the  empire, 
and  stationed  them  in  each  city  and  district,  in  strength  proportioned 
to  the  number  of  Shiites  that  it  contained.  He  then  suddenly  sent 
forth  the  messengers  of  death,  and  the  whole  of  those  unhappy  be- 
ings were  arrested.  Forty  thousand  of  them  were  slain;  the  rest 
were  condemned  to  perpetual  imprisonment.  The  contemporaneous 
Ottoman  historians  give  Selim  the  title  of  "  The  Just "  for  this  act 
of  atrocity. 

The  slaughter  of  his  coreligionists  increased  the  animosity 
with  which  Shah  Ismail  already  regarded  Selim;  and  the  two  sov- 
ereigns prepared  for  an  encounter  with  equal  rancor  and  resolution. 
Many  grounds  of  quarrel,  besides  that  of  religious  difference,  ex- 
isted between  them.  Shah  Ismail  had  humbled  the  Ottoman  arms 
in  some  encounters  with  the  troops  of  the  governors  of  the  Turkish 
provinces  near  his  frontier  in  Bayezid's  reign ;  he  had  also  sheltered 
the  fugitive  Prince  Murad,  son  of  Selim's  brother  Ahmed;  and  he 
now  assembled  his  troops,  with  the  avowed  intention  of  deposing 
and  punishing  Selim  and  of  placing  young  Murad  on  the  Turkish 
throne.  Selim,  on  his  part,  made  his  preparations  for  an  aggressive 
campaign  with  his  accustomed  vigor  and  determination.  The  re- 
nown of  the  Persian  arms  and  of  the  skill  and  good  fortune  of  Shah 
Ismail  were  widely  spread  throughout  the  East;  and  when  Selim 
announced  his  intention  of  attacking  Persia  the  members  of  his 
council  were  ominously  mute.  Thrice  the  Sultan  told  them  that 
he  would  lead  them  to  war,  and  thrice  they  spoke  not,  till  at  last  a 
common  Janissary,  named  Abdullah,  who  stood  by  on  guard,  broke 
the  silence,  and  throwing  himself  on  his  knees  before  the  Sultan, 
told  him  that  he  and  his  comrades  would  rejoice  in  marching  under 
him  to  fight  the  Shah  of  Persia.  Selim  made  him  Beg  of  the 
Sanjak  of  Selnik  on  the  spot. 

The  Turkish  army  mustered  in  the  plain  of  Yenischeer.  Selim 
began  his  march  on  April  20,  15 14,  on  a  Thursday,  a  day  of 
the  week  thought  fortunate  by  the  Ottomans.  In  a  general  re- 
view of  his  army  at  Sivas,  Selim  ascertained  that  his  available 
forces  amounted  to  140,000  well-armed  men,  and  5000  more  were 
employed  in  the  commissariat  department,  which  also  was  provided 
with  60.000  camels.  He  had  a  reserve  force  of  40,000  men  placed 
in  echelon,  between  Kaissyraia  and  Sivas.  The  great  difficulty  of 
the  campaign  was  to  keep  up  his  line  of  communications  and  to  en- 
sure a  supply  of  provisions;  as  the  Persians,  instead  of  encountering 


124  TURK  E  Y 

1514 

him  on  the  frontier,  retired  before  him,  laying  waste  the  whole 
country  and  leaving  nothing  that  could  shelter  or  feed  a  foe. 
Selim's  chief  magazines  were  at  Trebizond,  whither  his  fleets 
brought  large  supplies,  and  whence  they  were  carried  on  mules  to 
the  army.  Sclim  endeavored  to  provoke  Ismail  to  change  his 
judicious  tactics  and  risk  a  battle,  by  sending  him  more  letters, 
written  partly  in  verse  and  partly  in  prose,  in  which  he  taunted  the 
Persian  sovereign  with  cowardice  in  not  playing  out  the  royal  part 
which  he  had  usurped.  Ismail  replied  to  the  homilies  and  rhapso- 
dies of  the  Sultan  by  a  calm  and  dignified  letter,  in  which  he  denied 
the  existence  of  any  reason  why  Selim  should  make  war  on  him, 
and  expressed  his  willingness  to  resume  peaceful  relations.  Ismail 
then  regretted  that  the  Sultan  should  have  assumed  in  his  corre- 
spondence a  style  so  unnatural  and  so  unfitting  the  dignity  of  the 
nominal  writer;  but  with  polished  irony  Ismail  asserted  his  firm 
belief  that  the  letters  must  have  been  the  hasty  productions  of  some 
secretary  who  had  taken  an  overdose  of  opium.  Ismail  added, 
"That,  without  doubt,  the  will  of  God  would  soon  be  manifested; 
but  it  would  be  too  late  to  repent  when  that  manifestation  had  com- 
menced. For  his  part,  he  left  the  Sultan  at  liberty  to  do  what  he 
pleased,  and  was  fully  prepared  for  war  if  his  amicable  letter  was  ill 
received."  This  letter  was  accompanied  by  the  present  of  a  box 
of  opium,  ostensibly  for  the  supposed  secretary  who  had  written  the 
letter  in  Selim's  name;  but,  as  Selim  himself  was  addicted  to  the  use 
of  that  drug,  the  satiric  stroke  was  sure  to  be  keenly  felt.  Enraged 
at  the  dignified  scorn  of  his  adversary,  Selim  vented  his  wrath  by 
an  outrage  on  the  law  of  nations,  and  ordered  the  Persian  envoy 
to  be  torn  to  pieces. 

The  Ottoman  army  continued  to  advance  through  the  north  of 
Diarbekir,  Kurdistan,  and  Azerbijan,  upon  Tabriz,  which  was  then 
the  capital  of  Persia  and  the  usual  royal  residence  of  Shah  Ismail. 
The  prudent  system  of  operations  which  the  Persian  prince  con- 
tinued to  follow  inflicted  great  hardships  upon  the  advancing 
Turks,  as  wherever  they  moved  they  found  the  country  entirely 
desolate,  and  the  difiiculty  of  forwarding  supplies  increased  with 
each  march.  The  Janissaries  murmured;  but  Selim  only  redoubled 
his  vigilance  in  preserving  strict  order,  and  his  exertions  in  pro- 
viding as  far  as  possible  the  means  of  reaching  Tabriz.  One  of  his 
generals,  Ilemdar  Paslia,  who  had  been  brought  u]^  with  Selim  from 
infancy,  was  persuaded  by  the  other  officers  to  remonstrate  with  the 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     125 

1514 

Sultan  against  marching  farther  through  those  desert  countries. 
SeHm  beheaded  him  for  his  interference  and  still  marched  on.  At 
Sogma,  Selim  received  an  embassy  from  the  Prince  of  Georgia  and 
a  welcome  supply  of  provisions. 

At  length  the  pride  of  Ismail  overcame  his  prudence ;  and,  ex- 
asperated at  the  devastation  which  the  war  caused  to  his  subjects, 
and  at  the  near  approach  of  his  insulting  enemy  to  his  capital,  the 
Persian  prince  determined  to  give  battle,  and  arrayed  his  forces  in 
the  valley  of  Calderan.  Selim's  joy  Avas  extreme  when,  on  mount- 
ing the  heights  to  the  westward  of  that  valley,  on  August  23, 
15 14,  he  saw  the  Persian  army  before  him.  He  gave  command 
for  an  immediate  engagement,  and  drew  up  his  troops  in  order  of 
battle  on  the  heights,  before  marching  to  action  in  the  valley.  He 
had  about  120,000  troops,  of  whom  80,000  were  cavalry.  But  both 
men  and  horses  were  worn  by  the  fatigues  and  privations  of  the 
march,  and  seemed  to  be  ill-fitted  to  encounter  the  magnificent  cav- 
alry of  the  Persians,  which  was  perfectly  fresh  and  in  admirable 
spirit  and  equipment.  The  Persian  cavalry  was  equal  in  numbers  to 
the  Turkish  horse,  but  it  constituted  the  whole  of  Shah  Ismail's 
army.  He  had  neither  infantry  nor  cannons,  while  Selim  brought  a 
powerful  train  of  artillery  into  action,  and  a  large  portion  of  his 
Janissaries  bore  firearms. 

Selim  drew  up  the  feudal  cavalry  of  xVnatolia  on  his  right  wing 
under  Sinan  Pasha,  and  the  feudal  cavalry- of  Rumelia  on  the  left, 
under  Hassan  Pasha.  He  placed  his  batteries  at  the  extremity  of 
each  wing,  masking  them  by  the  light  troops  of  his  army,  the  Azabs, 
who  were  designed  to  fly  at  the  enemy's  first  charge  and  lure  the 
best  Persian  troops  under  the  muzzles  of  the  Turkish  guns.  The 
Janissaries  were  a  little  in  the  rear,  in  the  center,  protected  by  a 
barricade  of  baggage- wagons.  Behind  them  were  the  Sultan's 
horseguards,  and  there  Selim  took  his  own  station.  On  the  other 
side  Ismail  drew  up  two  chosen  brigades  of  cavalry,  one  on  each  side 
of  his  line,  one  of  which  he  led  himself  and  the  other  was  intrusted 
to  the  command  of  a  favorite  general.  Ismail  designed  to  turn  his 
enemy's  wings  with  these  two  brigades,  and,  avoiding  the  Ottoman 
batteries,  to  take  the  Janissaries  in  the  rear.  He  anticipated  that 
Selim's  light  troops,  the  Azabs,  would,  when  charged,  wheel  away 
to  the  extreme  right  and  left  of  the  Ottoman  line,  so  as  to  unmask 
the  cannons ;  and  he  therefore  ordered  that  his  two  brigades  should 
not  endeavor  lo  break  through  the  Azabs,  but  should  wheel  as  they 


126  TURKEY 

1514 

wheeled,  so  as  to  keep  the  Azabs  between  them  and  the  artillery, 
until  they  were  clear  of  the  guns,  and  then  ride  in  on  the  flanks  and 
rear  of  the  Ottoman  army.  This  maneuver  seemed  the  more  prac- 
ticable as  Selim's  cannons  in  each  wing  were  chained  together,  so 
that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  change  their  position  when  the 
battle  had  once  commenced.  Full  of  confidence,  the  Persian  cava- 
liers galloped  forward  with  loud  cries  of  "  The  Shah !  the  Shah !  " 
and  the  Turks  raised  the  cry  of  "  Allah !  "  and  stood  firm  to  meet 
them.  The  wing  which  Ismail  led  in  person  was  completely  suc- 
cessful. He  outflanked  the  wheeling  Azabs,  and  then,  bursting  in 
on  the  left  of  the  Ottomans,  he  drove  them  in  confusion  upon  their 
rearguard.  But,  on  the  other  side  of  the  field,  Sinan  Pasha,  the 
commander  of  the  Turkish  right  wing,  outgeneraled  his  opponent. 
Instead  of  wheeling  his  retreating  xA.zabs  away  from  the  front  of 
the  batteries,  Sinan  called  them  straight  back,  let  them  pass  over 
the  chains  by  which  the  guns  were  fastened  together,  and  then 
poured  in  a  deadly  discharge  upon  the  dense  column  of  Persian 
horse  that  was  galloping  forward  in  close  pursuit.  The  Persian 
general  was  one  of  the  first  that  fell,  and  the  whole  left  of  the  Per- 
sians was  thrown  into  disorder,  which  a  charge  of  Sinan's  Spahis 
soon  turned  into  utter  rout.  Victorious  in  this  part  of  the  battle, 
Selim  was  able  to  bring  succor  to  his  defeated  troops,  who  had  been 
broken  by  Shah  Ismail.  He  led  his  Janissaries  into  action,  and  the 
Shah's  cavalry,  already  somewhat  exhausted  and  dismayed  by  their 
previous  efforts,  were  unable  to  break  this  veteran  infantry,  or  long 
to  endure  their  fusillade.  The  Persians  had  begun  to  waver,  w^hen 
Shah  Ismail  himself  fell  from  his  horse,  wounded  in  the  arm  and 
the  foot.  The  Turks  closed  upon  him,  and  he  was  only  saved  by 
the  devoted  gallantry  of  one  of  his  followers,  ]\Iirza  Sultan  AH,  who 
rushed  upon  the  Ottomans,  exclaiming,  "  I  am  the  Shah."  While 
the  enemy  mastered  Mirza  AH  and  examined  his  person,  Ismail 
was  raised  from  the  ground.  Another  of  his  attendants  named 
Khizer  gave  up  his  own  horse,  on  which  Ismail  was  mounted  by 
those  around  him  and  hurried  from  the  field. 

The  victory  of  Selim  was  complete,  but  it  had  been  dearly  pur- 
chased. No  less  than  fourteen  Ottoman  Sanjak  Begs  lay  dead  on 
the  field  of  battle ,  and  an  equal  number  of  Khans  who  had  fought 
on  the  Persian  side  had  also  perished. 

Selim  took  possession  of  his  enemy's  camp,  in  which  were  his 
treasures  and  his  harem,  including  the  favorite  wife  of  the  Shah. 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     127 

1514 

Selim  put  all  his  prisoners,  except  the  women  and  children,  to  death, 
and  then  marched  upon  Tabriz,  and  entered  the  Persian  capital  in 
triumph. 

Selim  levied  on  the  conquered  city  a  contribution  of  looo  of  its 
most  skillful  artisans.  These  were  sent  by  him  to  Constantinople, 
and  received  houses  and  the  means  of  carrying  on  their  respective 
manufactures  in  the  Ottoman  capital.  After  a  halt  of  only  eight 
days  at  Tabriz,  the  Sultan  marched  northward  toward  Karabagh, 
meaning  to  fix  his  winter  quarters  in  the  plains  of  Azerbijan,  and 
resume  his  career  of  conquest  in  the  spring.  But  the  discontent  of 
the  troops  at  this  prolongation  of  their  hardships,  and  their  desire 
to  revisit  their  homes,  broke  out  into  such  general  and  formidable 
murmurings  that  Selim  was,  like  Alexander,  compelled  to  give 
way,  and  return  with  his  victorious  but  refractory  veterans  toward 
Europe.  His  expedition,  however,  was  not  barren  of  important 
augmentation  to  his  empire.  The  provinces  of  Diarbekir  and  Kur- 
distan, through  which  he  had  marched  against  Ismail,  were  thor- 
oughly conquered  and  annexed  to  his  dominions  by  the  military  skill 
of  the  generals  whom  he  detached  for  that  purpose,  and  still  more  by 
the  high  administrative  ability  of  the  historian  Idris,  to  whom  Selim 
confided  the  important  duty  of  organizing  the  government  of  the 
large  and  populous  territories  which  had  been  thus  acquired.  The 
pacific  overtures  of  Shah  Ismail  were  haughtily  rejected  by  the  Sul- 
tan; and  throughout  Selim's  reign  there  was  war  between  the  two 
great  Mohammedan  sovereigns,  in  which  the  Persian  arms  were 
generally  unsuccessful  against  the  Turkish,  though  Shah  Ismail 
maintained  the  contest  with  spirit  and  preserved  the  greater  part  of 
his  territories  under  his  sway. 

Selim's  hatred  against  the  Shiite  heretics  and  his  warlike 
energy  were  unchecked  throughout  his  life;  but  after  the  campaign 
of  Calderan  he  did  not  again  bring  the  whole  weight  of  the  Otto- 
man power  to  bear  upon  Persia,  nor  did  he  himself  again  lead  his 
invading  armies  against  her.  Syria  and  Egypt  proved  more  tempt- 
ing objects  to  his  ambition ;  and  the  aggressive  strength  of  the 
^^.lameluke  rulers  of  those  countries  made  a  decisive  contest  between 
them  and  the  Ottomans  almost  inevitable.  The  dominion  of  the 
Mamelukes  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  phenomena  in  history, 
especially  in  the  history  of  slavery.  The  word  ]\Iameluke,  or  Mem- 
look,  means  slave;  and  this  body  of  Oriental  chivalry,  which,  for 
nearly  six  centuries,  maintained  itself  in  lordly    pride    in    Egypt, 


128  TURKEY 

1250-1516 

which  encountered  Selim  and  Napoleon  with  such  valor  as  to  extort 
the  admiration  of  those  two  great  conquerors,  and  which,  though 
often  partially  broken,  was  only  destroyed  by  the  darkest  treachery 
— this  military  aristocracy  of  the  East  consisted  of  men  who  had 
been  bought  and  sold  and  bred  as  slaves,  and  who  recruited  their 
own  ranks,  not  from  among  the  natives  of  the  land  which  became 
their  country,  but  from  the  slave  markets  of  far  distant  regions. 
Malek  Salech,  of  the  Eyoub  dynasty  of  the  Sultans  of  Egypt, 
formed  in  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  (a  hundred  years 
before  the  institution  of  the  Janissaries)  an  armed  corps  of  twelve 
thousand  slaves.  These,  from  their  servile  condition,  were  called 
Memlooks.  Their  discipline  and  military  spirit  soon  made  them 
formidable  to  their  masters,  and  in  1264  they  killed  Touroon  Shah, 
the  last  prince  of  the  Eyoub  dynasty,  and  placed  one  of  their  own 
body  on  the  throne  of  Egypt.  The  first  Mameluke  sovereigns  of 
Egypt  were  called  Baharites.  They  conquered  Syria,  a  country 
which  the  Pharaohs,  the  Ptolemies,  and  all  the  various  rulers  of 
Egypt,  down  to  the  times  of  Napoleon  and  Mohammed  Ali,  have 
ever  regarded  as  a  necessary  rampart  for  their  dominions  along  the 
banks  of  the  Nile.  In  1382  Berkuk,  a  Mameluke  of  Circassian 
race,  overthrew  the  Baharite  sovereign,  and  founded  the  dynasty  of 
the  Circassian  Mamelukes,  which  continued  to  reign  till  the  time  of 
Selim's  invasion.  At  this  period  the  military  force  of  the  Mame- 
lukes consisted  of  three  classes  of  warriors,  all  cavalry  superbly 
mounted  and  armed,  but  differing  materially  in  rank.  First,  tliere 
were  the  ]\Iamelukes  tliemselves — properly  so  called — all  of  whom 
were  of  pure  Circassian  blood  and  who  had  all  been  originally 
slaves.  The  second  corps  was  called  the  Djelbans,  and  was  formed 
principally  of  slaves  brought  from  Abyssinia.  The  third,  and 
lowest  in  rank,  was  called  the  Korsans,  and  was  an  assemblage  of 
mercenaries  of  all  nations.  There  were  twenty-four  Begs  or  heads 
of  the  jMamelukes,  and  they  elected  from  among  themselves  a 
Sultan,  who  was  called  also  Emir  al  Kebir,  or  Chief  of  I'rinces.  lie 
reigned  over  Egypt  and  Syria,  and  was  also  recognized  as  supreme 
sovereign  over  that  part  of  Arabia  in  which  are  the  holy  cities  of 
Mecca  and  Medina. 

The  first  war  between  the  Mamelukes  and  the  Ottoman  Turks 
broke  out,  as  we  have  seen,  during  the  weak  reign  of  Bayezid  II. 
at  Constantinople,  and  terminated  to  the  disadvantage  of  tlie  Sub- 
lime Porte.      The  ^Mameluke  princes  saw  clearly  that  under  Sultan 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     129 

1250-1516 

Selim  the  vast  resources  of  the  Turkish  Empire  would  be  wielded 
in  a  far  different  spirit  from  that  of  his  father,  and  they  watched 
with  anxious  attention  the  conquests  of  the  provinces  of  Diarbekir 
and  Kurdistan,  which  Selim  made  from  the  Persians,  and  which 
brought  the  Ottoman  frontiers  more  extensively  in  contact  with 
those  of  the  Egyptian  possessions  :n  Syria.  The  Sultan  of  Egypt, 
Kansu  Ghawri.  assembled  a  strong  army  of  observation  in  the  north 
of  Syria,  in  1516.  Sinan  Pasha,  the  commander  of  the  Ottoman 
forces  in  the  southeast  of  Asia  Minor,  reported  this  to  Selim,  and 
stated  that  he  could  not  with  safety  obey  the  Sultan's  orders  to 
march  toward  the  Euphrates  while  menaced  by  the  Mamelukes  on 
flank  and  rear.  Selim  assembled  his  Divan  at  Constantinople  and 
the  question  of  war  with  Egypt  was  earnestly  deliberated.  The 
Secretary  Mohammed  (who  was  distinguished  for  his  scientific 
attainments  and  whom  Selim  had  raised  to  office  as  a  mark  of  his 
regard  for  science)  spoke  strongly  in  favor  of  war,  and  urged  that 
it  ought  to  be  a  point  of  honor  with  the  Sultan  of  the  Ottomans  to 
acquire  by  conquest  the  protectorate  of  the  Holy  Cities.  Selim  was 
so  delighted  with  the  warlike  speech  of  his  favorite  philosopher  that 
he  gave  him  the  rank  of  Vizier  on  the  spot.  Mohammed  at  first  de- 
clined the  promotion,  but  Selim  took  a  summary  method  of  curing 
his  scruples.  With  his  own  royal  hands  he  applied  the  bastinado  to 
the  man  whom  he  delighted  to  honor  till  the  diffident  follower  of 
science  accepted  the  proffered  dignity.  It  was  resolved  to  wage  war 
in  Egypt,  but  messengers  requiring  submission  were  first  to  be  sent 
in  obedience  to  the  precepts  of  the  Koran.  Selim,  however,  did 
not  delay  his  preparations  for  warfare  until  the  result  of  the  mes- 
sage was  ascertained.  He  left  Constantinople  at  the  same  time  with 
his  ambassadors  and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  intended 
army  of  Egypt. 

Kansu  Ghawri  was  at  Aleppo  when  Selim's  ambassadors 
reached  him.  He  committed  the  folly  as  well  as  the  crime  of  treat- 
ing them  with  insult  and  personal  violence,  though  on  the  approach 
of  tlie  Turkish  army  he  set  them  at  liberty,  and  vainly  endeavored  to 
open  negotiations.  Tlie  first  battle,  which  determined  the  fate  of 
Syria,  was  fought  on  August  2,  15 16,  not  far  from  Aleppo,  in 
a  plain  where,  according  to  Mohammedan  tradition,  is  the  tomb 
of  David.  The  eft'cct  of  the  Turkish  artillery  and  the  dissensions 
among  the  Mamelukes  themselves  gave  Selim  an  easy  victory:  and 
the  aged  Sultan  Kansu  died  while  endeavoring  to  escape.      The 


ISO  TURKEY 

1516-1517 

Mamelukes  chose  as  their  new  Sultan  Tuman  Beg,  a  chief  eminent 
for  his  valor  and  the  nobility  and  generosity  of  his  disposition. 
Their  defeat  had  not  damped  the  spirits  of  the  Mamelukes,  who 
remembered  their  victories  in  tlie  former  war  and  considered  them- 
selves far  superior  to  the  Ottomans  in  military  skill  and  personal 
prowess. 

During  the  confusion  caused  by  the  defeat  and  death  of 
the  Sultan,  and  the  retreat  of  the  principal  surviving  Begs  to  Cairo 
for  the  purpose  of  electing  his  successor,  Selim  had  been  suffered 
to  occupy  Aleppo,  Damascus,  Jerusalem,  and  the  other  Syrian  cities, 
without  resistance;  but  it  was  resolved  to  defend  the  passage  of  the 
desert  against  him,  and  an  advanced  force  of  Mamelukes  was  sent 
to  Gaza,  while  Tuman  Beg  concentrated  the  mass  of  the  Egyptian 
forces  in  the  vicinity  of  Cairo. 

Selim  prepared  for  the  difficult  march  from  the  inhabited  por- 
tion of  Syria  to  the  Egyptian  frontier  with  his  customary  fore- 
thought and  energy.  He  purchased  many  thousand  camels,  which 
were  laden  with  water  for  the  use  of  his  army  while  crossing  the 
desert,  and  he  distributed  a  liberal  donative  of  money  among  his 
men.  His  Grand  Vizier,  Sinan  Pasha,  defeated  the  advanced  force 
of  the  Mamelukes  near  Gaza  after  an  obstinate  fight  which  was 
determined  in  favor  of  the  Turks  by  their  artillery.  The  Turkish 
army  then  crossed  the  desert  in  ten  days  and  marched  upon  the 
Egyptian  capital,  Cairo.  Tuman  Beg's  army  was  at  Ridania,  a 
little  village  on  the  road  leading  toward  that  city,  and  it  was  there 
that  the  decisive  battle  was  fought  on  January  22,  15 17.  Two 
of  the  Egyptian  Sultan's  chief  officers,  Ghazali  and  Khair  Beg, 
had  betrayed  him,  and  baffled  the  skillful  tactics  by  which  he  hoped 
to  take  the  Ottoman  army  in  flank  while  on  the  march.  Though 
compelled  to  fight  at  disadvantage,  the  Mameluke  chivalry  never 
signalized  their  valor  more  than  on  the  fatal  day  of  Ridania.  At 
the  very  commencement  of  the  action  a  band  of  horsemen,  armed 
from  head  to  foot  in  steel,  galloped  from  the  Egyptian  left  in  upon 
the  Turkish  center  to  where  the  Sultan's  own  banner  was  displayed. 
Tuman  Beg  himself  and  two  of  his  best  captains,  Alan  Beg  and 
Kurt  Beg,  led  this  daring  charge.  They  had  sworn  to  take  the 
Ottoman  Sultan  dead  or  alive;  and  Selim  was  only  saved  by  their 
mistaking  for  him  Sinan  Pasha,  the  Grand  Vizier,  who  was  at  that 
moment  in  the  center  of  a  group  of  the  principal  officers  of  the 
Turkish  army.      Tuman  Beg  speared  Sinan  through  and  through : 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     131 

1517 

Alan  Beg  and  Kurt  Beg  killed  each  a  pasha,  and  then,  rapidly 
wheeling  their  ready  chargers,  the  bold  Mamelukes  rode  back  to 
their  own  army,  though  Alan  Beg  received  a  severe  wound  from  a 
bullet.  The  other  Mamelukes  (save  those  whom  treachery  kept 
back)  charged  with  valor  worthy  of  such  chiefs ;  but  the  efforts  of 
this  splendid  cavalry  were  as  vain  against  the  batteries  of  Selim's 
artillery  as  were  in  aftertime  the  charges  of  their  successors  against 
the  rolling  fire  of  Napoleon's  squares.  Tuman  Beg  and  a  relic  of 
his  best  cavaliers  escaped  to  Adviye,  but  25,000  Mamelukes  lay 
heaped  on  the  plain  of  Ridania. 

Selim  sent  a  detachment  of  his  army  to  occupy  Cairo.  They 
entered  it  without  resistance,  seven  days  after  the  battle;  but  the 
indomitable  Tuman  Beg  suddenly  came  upon  the  intrusive  garrison 
and  slew  them  to  a  man.  Selim  sent  his  best  troops  to  retake  the 
city,  which  had  no  regular  fortifications,  but  in  which  the  Turks 
now  found  every  street  barricaded  and  every  house  a  fortress.  A 
desperate  street  battle  now  ensued,  and  for  three  days  the  Mame- 
lukes held  Cairo  against  the  assaulting  columns  of  the  Sultan.  At 
the  suggestion  of  the  traitor  Khair  Beg,  Selim  now  proclaimed  an 
amnesty  to  such  Mamelukes  as  would  surrender.  On  the  faith  of 
this  promise  the  warfare  ceased,  and  eight  hundred  of  the  chief 
Mamelukes  voluntarily  became  Selim's  prisoners,  or  were  given  up 
to  him  by  the  citizens.  Selim  had  them  all  beheaded,  and  then  or- 
dered a  general  massacre  of  the  wretched  inhabitants  of  Cairo;  fifty 
thousand  human  beings  are  said  to  have  perished  in  this  atrocious 
butchery, 

Kurt  Beg,  who  was  reputed  the  most  valiant  of  the  Mame- 
lukes, was  for  a  time  concealed  in  Cairo,  but  Selim,  by  prom- 
ises of  safety,  induced  the  champion  of  the  Circassian  race  to  present 
himself  before  him.  Selim  received  him,  seated  on  his  throne  and 
with  all  the  dignitaries  of  his  camp  around  him.  Selim,  looking 
on  him,  said,  "  Thou  wast  a  hero  on  horseback — where  is  now  thy 
valor?"  "  It  is  always  with  me,"  answered  Kurt  Beg  laconically. 
"  Knowest  thou  what  thou  hast  done  to  my  army?''  "  Right  well." 
Selim  then  expressed  his  astonishment  at  the  attack  on  his  person, 
which  Kurt  Beg  had,  in  concert  with  Tuman  Beg  and  Alan  Beg, 
dared  to  make  at  Ridania,  and  which  had  proved  so  fatal  to  Sinan 
Pasha.  Upon  this,  Kurt  Beg,  who  was  as  renowned  for  his  elo- 
quence as  for  his  courage,  poured  forth  a  brilliant  eulogy  on  the 
valor  of  the  Alanielukes,  and  spoke  with  contempt  and  abhorrence 


132  TURKEY 

1517 

of  guns,  which,  he  said,  killed  so  cowardly  and  so  like  an  assassin.* 
He  told  Selim  that  the  first  time  that  Venetian  bullets  (so  the  Mame- 
lukes call  cannon  and  miisket-balls)  were  brought  into  Egypt  was 
in  the  reign  of  Eschref  Kanssou,  when  a  Mauritanian  offered  to 
arm  the  Mamelukes  with  them ;  but  the  Sultan  and  the  Begs  of  the 
arn\y  rejected  that  innovation  in  warfare  as  unworthy  of  true  valor, 
and  as  a  departure  from  the  example  of  the  Prophet,  who  had  con- 
secrated the  saber  and  the  bow  as  the  fit  weapons  for  his  followers. 
Kurt  Beg  said  that  the  Mauritanian  had,  on  this  refusal,  cried  out, 
"  Some  of  you  shall  live  to  see  this  empire  perish  by  these  bullets." 
"  Alas!  "  added  Kurt  Beg,  "  that  prediction  is  accomplished:  but  all 
power  is  in  the  hands  of  God  the  Most  High."  "  How  comes  it," 
said  Selim,  "  if  ye  place  all  your  strength  in  the  word  of  God.  that 
we  have  beaten  you,  and  driven  you  from  your  strong  places, 
and  thou  thyself  standest  here  a  prisoner  before  me  ?  "  "  By  Allah," 
answered  Kurt  Beg,  "  we  were  not  overthrown  because  ye  were 
braver  in  battle  or  better  horsemen  than  we ;  but  because  it  w^as  our 
destiny.  For,  all  that  has  a  beginning  must  have  an  end,  and  the 
duration  of  empires  is  limited.  Where  are  the  Caliphs,  those  cham- 
pions of  Islam?  Where  are  the  mightiest  empires  of  the  world? 
And  your  time  also,  ye  Ottomans,  will  come;  and  your  dominion 
shall  in  turn  be  brought  to  nothing.  As  for  myself,  I  am  not  thy 
prisoner,  Sultan  Selim,  but  I  stand  here  free  and  secure  by  reason 
of  thy  promises  and  pledges."  Kurt  Beg  then  turned  to  the  traitor 
Khair  Beg,  who  stood  by  Selim  during  this  interview,  and  after 
heaping  the  most  withering  invectives  on  him,  he  counseled  Selim 
to  strike  the  betrayer's  head  off,  lest  he  should  drag  him  down  to 
hell.  Then  said  Selim,  full  of  wrath,  "  I  had  thought  to  set  thee 
free,  and  even  to  make  thee  one  of  my  Begs.  But  thou  hast  loosened 
thy  tongue  in  an  unseemly  course,  and  not  set  respect  of  my  pres- 
ence before  thine  eyes.  He  who  stands  before  princes  without 
reverence,  is  driven  from  them  with  shame."  Kurt  Beg  answered 
with  spirit:  "  God  preserve  me  from  ever  being  officer  of  thine." 
At  these  words  Selim 's  rage  overflowed,  and  he  called  for  execu- 
tioners. A  hundred  swords  were  ready  at  his  command.  "  What 
good  will  my  single  head  do  thee,"  continued  the  fearless  Mameluke, 
"  when  so  many  brave  men  are  on  the  watch  for  thine;  and  Tuman 

1  The  interview  between  Selim  and  Kurt  Beg  is  not  imaginary,  but  drawn 
from  tlie  account  of  Sheik  Seinel,  an  eyewitness.  Cf.  Von  Hammer,  "History 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,"  book  xii. 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     133 

1517 

Beg  still  trusts  in  God  ?  "  Selim  signed  to  one  of  his  headsmen  to 
strike.  While  the  saber  was  swung  round  to  slay,  the  doomed  hero 
turned  to  Khair  Beg,  "  Take  my  bloody  head,  traitor,  and  place  it 
in  thy  wife's  lap,  and  may  *  God  make  the  betrayer  betrayed.'  " 
Such  were  the  last  words  of  Kurt  Beg,  the  bravest  of  the  brave 
Mamelukes. 

Tuman  Beg,  after  the  final  loss  of  Cairo,  sought  to  strengthen 
himself  by  employing  Arabs  in  his  army,  contrary  to  the  former 
practice  of  the  Mamelukes.  He  gained  some  advantages  over 
detachments  of  Selim's  army,  and  Selim  offered  him  peace  on 
condition  of  his  acknowledging  himself  to  be  vassal  of  the  Ottoman 
Sultan.  But  the  treacherous  massacre  at  Cairo  and  the  execution 
of  Kurt  Beg  had  exasperated  the  Mamelukes,  and  they  put  Selim's 
messenger  and  the  whole  of  his  attendants  to  death.  Selim  retorted 
by  the  slaughter  of  3000  prisoners.  The  war  continued  a  little 
longer,  but  the  Arabs  and  the  Mamelukes  under  Tuman  Beg  quar- 
reled with  each  other  and  fought  in  the  very  presence  of  the  Otto- 
man army,  which  poured  its  cannonade  upon  the  combatants  with 
impartial  destructiveness.  At  length  Tuman  Beg's  forces  were 
entirely  dispersed,  and  he  himself  was  betrayed  into  the  hands  of 
the  Turks.  When  Selim  was  informed  of  his  capture  he  ex- 
claimed, "  God  be  praised ;  Egypt  is  now  conquered."  He  at  first 
treated  his  brave  prisoner  with  merited  respect,  but  the  traitors 
Ghazali  and  Khair  Beg  were  determined  that  their  former  sovereign 
should  perish,  and  they  raised  Selim's  suspicions  that  there  was  a 
plot  to  liberate  the  royal  prisoner  and  restore  him  to  power.  Selim, 
on  this,  ordered  him  to  be  put  to  death,  and  the  last  Mameluke 
Sultan,  the  brave,  the  chivalrous,  the  just  Tuman  Beg,  perished  on 
April  17,  1517. 

Egypt  was  now  completely  subdued  by  the  Turks;  but  Selim 
remained  there  some  months,  engaged  in  settling  the  future  gov- 
ernment of  the  new  empire  which  he  had  acquired,  and  in  visiting 
the  public  buildings  of  its  capital.  The  mysterious  monuments  of 
the  Pharaohs  and  the  relics  of  the  splendors  of  the  Ptolemies  had 
no  interest  for  the  Ottoman  Sultan.  Pie  did  not  even  visit  the 
Pyramids,  but  all  his  attention  was  concentrated  on  the  mosques 
and  other  religious  foundations  of  the  early  Mohammedan  sover- 
eigns of  Egypt.  He  attended  divine  worship  in  the  chief  mosques 
of  Cairo  on  the  first  Friday  after  the  ccMiquest,  and  gave  to  the  as- 
sembled people  an   impressive  example  of  religious  humility  and 


134.  TURKEY 

1517 

contrition  by  causing  the  rich  carpets  which  had  been  spread  for 
him  to  be  removed,  and  by  prostrating  himself  with  his  bare  fore- 
head on  the  bare  pavement,  which  he  visibly  moistened  with  his 
tears. 

The  mode  of  administering  the  government  of  Egypt  was  a 
subject  of  deep  anxiety  to  Selim,  as  it  had  been  to  all  former  con- 
querors of  that  wealthy  and  powerful  country.  The  Persian  kings, 
the  Roman  emperors,  and  the  Syrian  Caliph  had  ever  found  good 
cause  to  dread  that  their  Egyptian  province  would  assert  its  inde- 
pendence. An  ambitious  pasha,  if  of  daring  genius  and  favored 
by  circumstances,  might  have  raised  up  against  the  Ottomans  the 
Arabian  nation,  of  which  Egypt  (according  to  its  last  great  con- 
queror, Napoleon)  is  the  natural  metropolis.  Selim  even  feared 
that  the  division  of  Egypt  into  several  pashalics  would  not  be  a 
sufficient  guarantee  for  its  subjection  to  the  Porte,  and  he  there- 
fore resolved  to  divide  authority  among  the  variety  of  races  in  the 
country,  and  so  to  secure  his  imperial  sovereignty.  He  did  not 
extirpate  the  Mamelukes;  nor  did  he  provide  for  their  gradual 
extinction  by  forbidding  the  Begs  to  recruit  their  households  with 
new  slaves  from  Circassia.  Twenty-four  Begs  of  the  Mamelukes, 
chosen  from  those  who  had  acted  with  the  invaders,  continued  to 
preside  over  the  departments  of  the  province,  and  their  chief,  the 
arch-traitor  Khair  Beg,  Vv^as  styled  governor  of  Egypt.  Selim, 
however,  sent  Khair  Beg's  wives  and  children  to  Europe,  as  se- 
curities for  his  good  behavior.  He  formed  a  more  effectual  and 
lasting  safeguard  for  the  Turkish  supremacy  by  placing  a  perma- 
nent force  of  5000  Spahis  and  500  Janissaries  in  the  capital,  under 
the  command  of  the  Ottoman  Aga  Khaireddin,  who  had  orders 
never  to  leave  the  fortifications.  This  force  was  recruited  from 
among  the  inhabitants  of  Egypt,  and  formed  gradually  a  provin- 
cial militia  with  high  privileges  and  importance.  Selim  placed  the 
greater  part  of  the  administrative  functions  of  law  and  religion 
in  the  hands  of  the  Arab  Sheiks,  who  possessed  the  greatest  in- 
fluence over  the  mass  of  the  population,  which,  like  themselves, 
was  of  Arabic  origin.  The  Sheiks  naturally  attached  themselves, 
through  religious  spirit  and  inclination,  to  Constantinople,  rather 
than  to  the  Mamelukes,  and  drew  the  feelings  of  the  other  Arab 
inhabitants  with  them.  Selim  took  no  heed  of  the  Copts,  the 
aboriginal  natives  of  Egpyt,  but  it  was  from  among  this  despised 
class  and  the  Jews    that   the  Mameluke   Begs  generally  selected 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     135 

their  agents  and  tax-gatherers,  and  the  villages  were  commonly 
under  the  immediate  government  of  Coptic  local  officers. 

The  Mameluke  Sultans  of  Egypt,  whose  dynasty  Selim  cut 
short,  had  been  the  recognized  suzerains  and  protectors  of  the 
holy  cities  of  Arabia ;  and  Selim  now  acquired  the  same  titles  and 
rights,  which  were  of  infinite  worth  in  the  eyes  of  that  imperial 
devotee,  and  which  were,  and  are,  of  real  practical  value  to  an 
Ottoman  Sultan,  from  the  influence  which  they  give  him  over  the 
whole  Mohammedan  world. 

Another  important  dignity  which  the  Sultan  Selim  and  his 
successors  obtained  from  the  conquest  of  Egypt  was  the  succes- 
sion to  the  Caliphate  and  to  the  spiritual  power  and  preeminence 
of  the  immediate  Vicars  of  Mohammed  himself.  After  the  deaths 
of  the  four  first  Caliphs,  who  had  been  personal  companions  of 
the  Prophet,  the  spiritual  sovereignty  of  Islam  passed  successively 
to  the  Ommiade  Caliphs  and  to  the  Abbassides,  whose  temporal 
power  was  overthrown  by  Hulagu  Khan,  a  grandson  of  Genghis 
Khan,  in  1258.  But  though  the  substantial  authority  of  the  Caliphs, 
as  independent  princes,  was  then  shattered,  the  name  was  perpetu- 
ated three  centuries  longer  in  eighteen  descendants  of  the  house 
of  Abbas,  who  dwelt  in  Egypt  with  titular  pomp,  but  no  real  power, 
in  the  capital  of  the  Mameluke  rulers,  like  the  descendants  of  the 
Great  Mogul  in  British  India.  They  gave  their  names  to  the  edicts 
of  the  Mameluke  Sultans  when  required ;  and  we  have  seen  in  the 
case  of  the  Ottoman  Bayezid  I.  that  Mohammedan  princes  in 
other  countries  still  regarded  the  Egyptian  Caliph  as  the  fountain 
of  honor,  and  sought  from  him  the  stamp  and  sanction  of  sover- 
eignty. When  Selim  conquered  Egypt  he  found  there  Mo- 
hammed, the  twelfth  Caliph  of  the  family  of  Abbas,  and  he  induced 
him  solemnly  to  transfer  the  Caliphate  to  the  Ottoman  Sultan  and 
his  successors.  At  the  same  time  Selim  took  possession  of  the 
visible  insignia  of  that  high  office,  which  the  Abbassides  had  re- 
tained— the  sacred  standard,  the  sword,  and  the  mantle  of  the 
Prophet. 

In  a  preceding  chapter  of  this  volume,  attention  has  been 
drawn  to  the  importance  of  the  Turkish  Sultan  being  at  once  the 
spiritual  and  the  temporal  chief  of  his  Mohammedan  subjects — of 
liis  being  both  Pope  and  emperor.  It  will  readily  be  imagined 
how  much  the  Sultan's  authority  must  have  been  augmented  by 
his  acquiring  the  sacred  position  of  Caliph,  Vicar  of  the  Prophet  of 


186  TURKEY 

1517-1520 

God,  Commander  of  the  Faithful,  and  Supreme  Imam  of  Islam. 
It  gives  the  Turkish  Sultan  dignity  and  authority  (and  may,  pos- 
sibly, give  him  practical  influence),  not  only  over  his  own  Mo- 
hammedan subjects,  but  over  all  who  profess  the  creed  of  Islam, 
whatever  be  their  race  and  whatever  be  their  country — except  the 
Persians  and  the  few  others  who  hold  the  Shiite  tenets. 

In  September.  15 17,  Sultan  Selim  led  back  his  victorious  army 
from  Egypt  to  Syria.  A  thousand  camels,  laden  with  gold  and 
silver,  carried  part  of  the  rich  spoils  of  the  war,  and  a  more  valu- 
able portion  had  been  sent  by  Selim  on  board  the  Ottoman  fleet 
to  Constantinople.  This  consisted  of  the  most  skillful  artisans  of 
Cairo,  whom  Selim  selected,  as  he  had  done  at  Tabriz,  and  removed 
to  the  capital  city  of  his  empire.  Selim  halted  his  army  for  some 
months,  first  at  Damascus  and  afterward  at  Aleppo.  During  this 
time  he  received  the  submission  of  several  Arabian  tribes,  and  ar- 
ranged the  division  of  Syria  into  governments  and  the  financial 
and  judicial  administration  of  that  province.  He  returned  to  Con- 
stantinople in  August,  1 5 18.  He  had  been  absent  but  little  more 
than  two  years,  and  in  that  time  had  conquered  three  nations,  the 
Syrian,  the  Egyptian,  and  the  Arabian. 

Selim's  attention  was  now  earnestly  directed  to  the  develop- 
ment of  the  maritime  resources  of  his  empire.  In  15 19  he  built 
150  new  ships  of  various  dimensions,  some  of  700  tons;  at  the 
same  time  100  new  galleys  that  lay  ready  for  launching  were 
ordered  to  be  rigged  and  fully  equipped  for  sea.  A  powerful  army 
of  60,000  men,  with  a  large  train  of  artillery,  was  collected  and  kept 
on  foot  in  Asia  Minor,  ready  to  enter  on  a  campaign  at  the  first 
word  of  command.  It  was  supposed  by  some  that  Selim  designed 
a  great  attack  upon  Persia,  but  it  was  generally  believed  that  the 
Turkish  preparation  would  make  for  Rhodes.  But  Selim  was 
resolved  not  to  strike  until  the  blow  v;as  sure  to  be  effective,  and 
the  armaments  in  the  Turkish  seaports  and  the  building  of  fresh 
dockyards  and  arsenals  were  continued  with  unremitting  industry 
in  the  succeeding  year.  From  the  immense  naval  force  which  was 
thus  created,  it  could  no  longer  be  doubted  that  Rhodes  was  the 
object  of  attack.  Selim  had  not  forgotten  the  humiliating  repulse 
from  that  stronghold  of  the  Christians  which  his  grandfather  had 
sustained ;  and  he  would  not  open  the  campaign  until  everything 
that  could  Ijc  required  during  the  expedition  had  been  amply  pro- 
vided and  arranged.  e\cn  in  the  minutest  details,     Flis  Viziers  were 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     137 

1520 

more  eager  to  commence  the  enterprise,  and  drew  down  on  them- 
selves the  rebuke  of  their  stern  and  thoughtful  master.  One  day 
when  the  Sultan,  in  company  with  Hassan  Khan,  the  father  of 
the  historian  Seadeddin,  was  leaving  the  mosque  of  Eyoub,  he 
saw  one  of  the  new  first-class  galleys,  which  he  had  ordered  to  be 
fitted  out  and  kept  ready  for  launching,  sailing  along  the  port  of 
Constantinople.  Transported  with  fury,  he  demanded  by  whose 
order  the  galley  had  left  the  stocks ;  and  it  was  with  great  difficulty 
that  the  Grand  Vizier,  Piri  Pasha,  saved  the  admiral's  head  by 
representing  to  the  Sultan  that  it  had  long  been  usual  to  launch 
vessels  when  they  were  completely  ready.  Selim  called  his  Viziers 
round  him  and  said  to  them,  "  You  try  to  hurry  me  to  the  con- 
quest of  Rhodes;  but  do  you  know  what  such  an  expedition  re- 
quires? Can  you  tell  me  what  quantity  of  gimpowder  you  have 
in  store?  "  The  viziers,  taken  by  surprise,  were  unable  to  answer; 
but  the  next  day  they  came  to  the  Sultan,  and  said  that  they  had 
ammunition  sufficient  for  a  siege  of  four  months.  Selim  answered 
angrily,  "  What  is  the  use  of  ammunition  for  four  months,  when 
double  the  amount  would  not  be  enough?  Do  you  wish  me  to 
repeat  the  shame  of  Mohammed  II.  ?  I  will  not  begin  war,  nor 
will  I  make  the  voyage  to  Rhodes,  with  such  scant  preparations. 
Besides,  I  believe  that  the  only  voyage  which  I  have  to  make  is 
the  voyage  to  the  other  world." 

These  words  were  uttered  with  a  true  presentiment  of  ap- 
proaching death.  He  left  his  capital  with  the  intention  of  going 
to  Adrianople,  and  though  symptoms  of  acute  disease  had  already 
appeared,  he  rode  on  horseback,  notwithstanding  the  remonstrance 
and  entreaties  of  his  physicians :  nor  could  they  prevail  on  him 
to  discontinue  the  use  of  opium.  When  he  reached  the  little  vil- 
lage, on  the  road  to  Adrianople,  where  he  had  formerly  given 
battle  to  his  father,  and  where,  according  to  tlie  Venetian  narra- 
tive of  his  death,  he  had  received  his  father's  curse,  the  agony 
of  his  disease  became  so  violent  that  he  was  compelled  to  stop. 
On  the  seventh  night  after  he  had  left  Constantinople,  Hassan 
Khan,  who  was  his  inseparable  companion,  was  sitting  by  the 
dying  monarch  and  reading  to  him  from  the  Koran.  The  move- 
ment of  Selim's  lips  seemed  to  show  that  he  followed  the  words 
of  the  reader;  but,  suddenly,  at  the  verse  "The  word  of  the  Al- 
mighty is  salvation."  Selim  clenched  his  hand  convulsively,  and 
ceased  to  live  (September  22,  1520). 


138  TURKEY 

1520 

This  prince  died  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age  and  the 
ninth  of  his  reign.  No  one  can  deny  his  high  administrative  and 
mihtary  abilities;  and  in  rehgion,  though  a  bigot  of  the  darkest 
order,  he  was  unquestionably  sincere.  His  personal  eminence  in 
literature  and  his  enlightened  and  liberal  patronage  of  intellectual 
merit  in  others  are  matters  of  just  eulogy  with  the  Oriental  writ- 
ers. One  of  the  most  remarkable  legal  characters  of  his  reign 
is  the  Mufti  Djemali.  If  he  disgraced  himself  by  the  fetwah  with 
which  he  sanctioned,  on  the  most  frivolous  pretexts,  the  war  with 
Egypt,  the  honesty  and  the  courage  with  which  he  often  opposed 
the  cruelty  of  Selim  are  highly  honorable  to  his  memory;  nor 
can  we  refuse  our  praise  to  the  monarch  who  repeatedly  curbed 
his  haughty  will  and  abstained  from  the  coveted  bloodshedding  at 
his  subject's  rebuke.  On  one  occasion  Selim  had,  for  some  slight 
cause  of  wrath,  ordered  150  of  the  persons  employed  in  his  treas- 
ury to  be  put  to  death.  Djemali  stood  before  the  Sultan  and  said 
to  him,  "  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Mufti  to  have  a  care  for  the  weal 
of  the  Sultan  of  Islam  in  the  life  to  come.  I  therefore  ask  of  thee 
the  lives  of  the  150  men  unrighteously  sentenced  by  thee  to  death." 
Selim  answered,  "  The  Ulema  have  nothing  to  do  with  afifairs  of 
state.  Besides  the  masses  are  only  to  be  kept  in  order  by  severity." 
Djemali  replied,  "  It  is  not  a  question  of  policy  of  this  world,  but 
of  the  next,  where  mercy  meets  with  everlasting  reward,  but  un- 
just severity  with  everlasting  punishment."  Selim  gave  way  to 
the  Mufti,  and  not  only  spared  those  whom  he  had  sentenced, 
but  restored  them  to  their  functions. 

The  most  memorable  exercise  of  Djemali's  salutary  influence 
was  in  preserving  the  whole  Greek  population  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  from  the  destruction  with  which  they  were  menaced  by 
Selim's  bigotry.  After  the  massacre  of  the  heretical  Shiites,  Selim 
formed  the  idea  of  extirpating  unbelief  and  misbelief  of  every 
kind  from  his  dominions,  and  he  resolved  to  put  all  the  Chris- 
tians to  death,  and  turn  their  churches  into  Mohammedan  mosques. 
Without  avowing  his  precise  purpose,  he  laid  before  his  Mufti 
Djemali  the  general  question,  "  Which  is  the  most  meritorious 
— to  conquer  the  whole  world  or  to  convert  the  nations  to  Islam?  " 
The  Mufti  gave  an  answer  that  the  conversion  of  the  infidels  was 
incontestably  the  more  meritorious  work,  and  the  one  most  pleas- 
ing to  God.  Having  obtained  this  fetwah,  Selim  ordered  his 
Grand  Vizier  forthwith  to  change  all  the  churches  into  mosques, 


CONQUEST     OF     EGYPT     AND     SYRIA     139 

1520 

to  forbid  the  practice  of  the  Christian  religion,  and  to  put  to  death 
all  who  refused  to  become  Mohammedans.  The  Grand  Vizier, 
alarmed  at  the  sanguinary  edict,  consulted  Djemali,  who  had  un- 
consciously given  the  fetwah  which  the  Sultan  used  to  justify  the 
massacre  of  these  Christians.  By  Djemali's  recommendation  the 
Greek  patriarch  sought  an  audience  of  the  Sultan,  and,  although 
with  much  difficulty,  was  heard  before  the  Divan  at  Adrianople. 
He  appealed  to  the  pledges  given  by  Mohammed  II.  in  favor  of  the 
Christians  when  Constantinople  was  conquered,  and  he  eloquently 
invoked  the  passages  of  the  Koran  which  forbid  compulsory  con- 
version, and  enjoin  the  Mussulmans  to  practice  religious  toleration 
to  all  the  people  of  the  Books  who  submit  to  pay  tribute.  Selim 
yielded  to  the  remonstrances  and  entreaties  of  the  menaced  Greeks, 
and  to  the  urgent  advice  of  his  best  counselors,  so  far  as  to  abstain 
from  the  slaughter  of  the  Rayas  which  he  had  intended.  Still  he 
refused  to  suffer  the  finest  churches  of  Constantinople  to  be  used 
any  longer  by  the  Christians :  they  were  changed  into  mosques ; 
but  inferior  structures  of  wood  were  built  in  their  stead,  and  the 
ruinous  churches  were  repaired  by  Selim's  orders,  so  that  apparent 
respect  might  be  paid  to  the  grant  of  liberties  from  his  great 
ancestor  to  the  Greeks. 

The  reign  of  Selim  I.  closes  the  three  centuries  which  mark 
the  rise  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  and  constitute  its  period  of 
aggrandizement.  The  anonymous  Turks  whom  Ertoghrul,  the 
"  right-hearted  man,"  had  led  into  Asia  Minor  seeking  the  pat- 
ronage of  Alaeddin,  Sultan  of  the  Seljukian  branch  who  had 
already  possessed  themselves  of  the  rich  lands  of  Asia  Alinor,  had 
thus,  quickly  and  strongly,  established  themselves  through  the 
favor  of  Alaeddin  and  their  successors,  gradually  displaced  the 
broken  dominion  of  the  Seljukian  chiefs,  whom  they  found  ruling 
over  the  various  territories  as  independent  princes,  and  substituted 
their  own  strong  supremacy.  Selim  I.  in  the  early  sixteenth  cen- 
tury had  completed  the  task  of  Ertoghrul  and  his  hardy  clan  in  win- 
ning back  to  the  Turkish  race  the  rich  regi(3ns  of  Asia  Minor,  of 
Syria,  of  Mesopotamia  and  Armenia,  which  the  conquering  hordes 
of  Mongols,  as  well  as  internal  dissension  among  the  Seljukians 
themselves,  had  rent  away.  The  Crescent  device  of  Alaeddin's 
banner,  which  Ertoghrul  and  his  followers  defended,  was  destined 
to  endure  for  centuries  as  the  standard  of  the  sons  of  Othman. 
Under  Orkhan  that  emblem  won  many  towns  from  the  Greeks  and 


140  TURKEY 

1520 

under  Miirad  I.  it  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  established  Ottoman 
dominion  in  Europe.  Under  Bayezid  I,  and  Murad  II.  its  empire 
was  extended.  Under  Mohammed  II.  the  Crescent  was  raised 
over  coveted  Constantinople,  overthrew  the  Byzantine  empire  and 
conquered  Trebizond.  Bayezid  II.  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tui-y  and  Selim  I.  at  the  commencement  of  the  sixteenth  main- 
tained its  prestig^e  and  passed  on  the  Crescent  to  their  successors  as 
the  terror  of  Christendom  and  the  sign  of  the  conquering  Otto- 
man power. 


PART  II 

CULMINATION    OF    POWER    UNDER   SULEI- 
MAN AND  THE  BEGINNING  OF 
DECLINE.     1520-1699 


Chapter  X 

FIRST   YEARS    OF   THE    EPOCH    OF    SULEIMAN    THE 
GREAT.     1520-1533 

THE  period  comprised  widiin  the  reign  of  Suleiman  I. 
( 1 520- 1 566)  is  one  of  die  most  important,  not  only  in  Otto- 
man history,  but  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The  great 
monarchies  of  Western  Christendom  had  now  emerged  from  the 
feudal  chaos.  They  had  consolidated  their  resources  and  matured 
their  strength.  They  stood  prepared  for  contests  on  a  grander  scale, 
for  the  exhibition  of  more  sustained  energy,  and  for  the  realization 
of  more  systematic  schemes  of  aggrandizement  than  had  been  wit- 
nessed during  the  centuries  which  we  term  the  ages  of  medieval  his- 
tory. At  the  commencement  of  this  epoch  (1520) ,  nearly  forty  years 
had  passed  away  since  the  Ottomans  had  been  engaged  in  earnest 
conflict  with  the  chief  powers  of  central  and  western  Europe. 
The  European  wars  of  the  feeble  Bayezid  II.  had  been  coldly 
waged,  and  were  directed  against  the  minor  states  of  Christendom ; 
and  the  fierce  energies  of  his  son  Selim  the  Inflexible  had  been 
devoted  to  the  conquest  of  Mohammedan  nations.  During  these 
two  reigns  the  great  kingdoms  of  modern  Europe  had  started 
from  childhood  into  manhood.  Spain  had  swept  the  last  relics 
of  her  old  Moorish  conquerors  from  her  soil,  and  had  united  the 
scepters  of  her  various  Christian  kingdoms  under  the  sway  of  a 
single  dynasty.  France  under  three  warlike  kings,  Charles  VIII., 
Louis  XII.,  and  Francis  I.,  had  learned  to  employ  in  brilliant 
schemes  of  foreign  conquest  those  long-discordant  energies  and 
long-divided  resources  which  Louis  XL  had  brought  beneath  the 
sole  authority  of  the  crown.  In  England  and  in  the  dominions 
of  the  house  of  Austria  similar  developments  of  matured  and 
concentrated  power  had  taken  place.  ^Moreover,  while  the  arts, 
which  enrich  and  adorn  nations,  had  received  in  Christendom, 
toward  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century,  an  almost  unprecedented 
and  unequaled  impulse,  the  art  of  war  had  been  improved  there 
even   in   a   higher  degree.      Permanent   armies,   comprising   large 

143 


144  TURKEY 

1520 

bodies  of  well-armed  and  well-trained  infantry,  were  now  em- 
ployed. 

The  manufacture  and  the  use  of  firearms,  especially  of  ar- 
tillery, were  better  understood  and  more  generally  practiced; 
and  a  school  of  skillful  as  well  as  daring  commanders  had  arisen, 
trained  in  the  wars  and  on  the  model  of  the  Great  Captain  Gon- 
salvo  of  Cordova.  Besides  the  commencement  of  the  struggle 
between  France  and  Austria  for  the  possession  of  Italy,  many 
great  events  signalized  the  transition  period  from  medieval  to 
modern  history,  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  and  the  commencement 
of  the  sixteenth  centuries :  and  those  events,  though  not  all  strictly 
connected  with  warfare,  were  all  of  a  nature  calculated  to  waken 
a  more  far-reaching  and  a  more  enduring  heroism  among  the 
Christian  nations,  and  to  make  them  more  formidable  to  their 
Mohammedan  rivals.  The  great  maritime  discoveries  and  the  con- 
quests effected  by  the  Portuguese  and  the  Spaniards  in  the  East 
Indies  and  in  the  New  World;  the  revival  of  classical  learning; 
the  splendid  dawnings  of  new  literatures;  the  impulse  given  by 
the  art  of  printing  to  enlightenment,  discussion,  and  free  inquiry — 
all  tended  to  multiply  and  to  elevate  the  leading  spirits  of  Chris- 
tendom, to  render  them  daring  in  aspiration,  and  patient  of  diffi- 
culty, and  of  suffering  in  performance.  There  was  also  reason 
to  expect  that  these  new  energies  of  the  Franks  would  find  their 
field  of  action  in  conquests  over  Islam,  for  religious  zeal  had 
again  become  fervent  in  that  age,  and  the  advancement  of  the 
Cross  was  the  ultimate  purpose  of  the  toils  of  the  mariner,  the 
philosopher,  and  the  student,  as  well  as  of  the  statesman  and  the 
soldier.  The  hope  that  the  treasures  to  be  derived  from  his  voy- 
ages would  serve  to  rescue  the  Holy  Land  from  the  infidels  was 
ever  present  to  the  miind  of  Columbus  amid  his  labors  and  his 
sufferings,  and  amid  the  perils  of  the  unknown  deep,  even  as 
Charles  VIIL,  amid  his  marches  and  battlefields  between  the  Alps 
and  Naples,  still  cherished  the  thought  of  proceeding  from 
conquered  Italy  to  the  rescue  of  Constantinople  from  the  Turks. 

The  probability  of  a  marked  change  in  the  balance  of  power 
between  Christendom  and  Islamism  before  the  middle  of  the  six- 
teenth century  may  seem  to  have  been  materially  increased  by 
the  fact  tliat  one  Christian  sovereign  combined  many  of  the  most 
powerful  states  under  his  single  rule.  The  Emperor  Charles  V. 
reigned  over  an  empire  equal  to  that  of  Charlemagne  in  space, 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  145 

1520 

and  immeasurably  surpassing  it  in  wealth  and  strength.  He  had 
inherited  the  Netherlands,  the  Austrian  states,  and  the  united 
Spanish  monarchy,  with  the  fair  kingdoms  of  Naples  and  Sicily, 
He  obtained  by  election  the  imperial  throne  of  Germany;  and 
Cortes  and  Pizarro  gave  him  the  additional  transatlantic  empires 
of  Mexico  and  Peru,  with  their  almost  countless  supplies  of  silver 
and  gold.  It  might,  perhaps,  have  been  foreseen  that  the  possessor 
of  this  immense  power  would  be  trammeled  when  employing  it 
against  the  Ottomans  by  the  ambitious  rivalry  of  France  and  by 
the  religious  dissensions  of  Germany,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
Ottoman  Empire  was  at  least  in  an  equal  degree  impeded  from  full 
action  against  Christendom  by  the  imperial  rivalry  of  Persia,  by 
the  hatred  of  Shiite  against  Sunnite,  and  by  the  risk  of  revolt  in 
Syria  and  Egypt. 

Yet  the  house  of  Othman  not  only  survived  this  period  of 
peril,  but  was  lord  of  the  ascendant  throughout  the  century,  and 
saw  numerous  and  fair  provinces  torn  from  the  Christians,  and 
heaped  together  to  increase  its  already  ample  dominions.  Much, 
unquestionably,  of  this  success  was  due  to  the  yet  unimpaired 
vigor  of  the  Turkish  military  institutions,  to  the  high  national 
spirit  of  the  people,  and  to  the  advantageous  position  of  their  ter- 
ritory. But  the  principal  cause  of  the  Ottoman  greatness  through- 
out this  epoch  was  the  fact  that  the  empire  was  ruled  by  a  great 
man — great,  not  merely  through  his  being  called  on  to  act  amid 
combinations  of  favoring  circumstances — not  merely  by  tact  in 
discerning  and  energy  in  carrying  out  the  spirit  of  his  age — but 
a  man  great  in  himself,  an  intelligent  ordainer  of  the  present,  and 
a  self-inspired  molder  of  the  future. 

Sultan  Suleiman  I.,  termed  by  European  writers  "  Suleiman 
the  Great  "  and  "  Suleiman  the  Magnificent,"  bears  in  the  histories 
written  by  his  own  countrymen  the  titles  of  "  Suleiman  Kanuni  " 
(Suleiman  the  Lawgiver)  and  "Suleiman  Sahibi  Kiran  "  (Sulei- 
man the  Lord  of  his  Age).  That  age  was  remarkably  fertile  in 
sovereigns  of  high  ability.  The  Emperor  Charles  V.,  King  Francis 
I.,  Pope  Leo  X.,  Henry  VIIL,  Vasili  Ivanovitch,  who  laid  the 
foundations  of  the  future  greatness  of  Russia,  Sigismund  I.  of 
Poland,  Andreas  Gritti,  the  sage  Doge  of  Venice,  Shah  Ismail, 
the  restorer  and  legislator  of  Persia,  and  the  Indian  Akbar,  the 
most  ilhistrious  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Great  Moguls,  shone  in  the 
drama  of  the  world  at  the  same  time  that  Suleiman  appeared  there. 


140  TURKEY 

1520 

Not  one  of  these  great  historical  characters  is  clothed  with  superior 
luster  to  that  of  the  Ottoman  Sultan. 

Suleiman  had,  while  very  young,  in  the  time  of  Bayezid  II., 
been  intrusted  with  the  command  of  provinces;  and  in  his  father's 
reign  he  had,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  been  left  at  Constantinople  as 
viceroy  of  the  empire,  when  Selim  marched  to  attack  Persia.  He 
governed  at  Adrianople  during  the  Egyptian  war,  and  during  the 
last  two  years  of  Selim's  reign  he  administered  the  province  of 
Saroukhan.  Thus,  when  at  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  became  Sultan 
of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  he  had  already  gained  experience  as  a 
ruler;  and  he  had  displayed  not  only  high  abilities,  but  also  a 
noble  generosity  of  disposition  which  won  for  him  both  affection 
and  respect.  The  people,  weary  of  the  ferocity  of  Selim  the  In- 
flexible, rapturously  welcomed  the  accession  of  a  new  ruler  in  the 
prime  of  youthful  manhood,  conspicuous  by  dignity  and  grace  of 
person,  and  whose  prowess,  justice,  clemency,  and  wisdom  were 
painted  by  fame  and  hope  in  the  brightest  colors. 

The  first  acts  of  Sultan  Suleiman  announced  that  an  earnest 
love  of  justice  and  generous  magnanimity  would  be  the  leading 
principles  of  his  reign.  Six  hundred  Egyptians,  whom  Selim  had 
forcibly  transplanted  to  Constantinople,  received  permission  to  re- 
turn to  their  homes,  A  large  sum  of  money  was  distributed  to 
merchants  who  had  suffered  by  Selim's  arbitrary  confiscation  of 
their  property  for  trafficking  with  Persia.  Several  officers,  high 
in  rank,  including  the  admiral  of  the  fleet,  who  were  accused  of 
cruelty  and  malversation,  were  brought  to  trial,  convicted,  and 
executed.  The  report  of  these  and  similar  deeds  of  the  new  Sul- 
tan spread  rapidly  through  the  empire,  and  Suleiman's  commands 
to  his  viceroys  to  repress  every  kind  of  disorder  among  rich  and 
poor,  among  Moslems  and  Rayas,  and  to  make  the  impartial  dis- 
pensation of  justice  the  great  object  of  their  lives,  received  uni- 
versal applause  and  general  obedience.  The  people  felt  that  they 
were  under  a  strong  as  well  as  a  merciful  government,  and  the  Sul- 
tan was  better  loved  for  being  also  feared.  It  was  only  in  Syria 
that  any  troubles  followed  the  death  of  Sultan  Selim.  There  the 
double  traitor,  Ghazali,  the  Mameluke  Beg,  who  had  betrayed  the 
IMameluke  cause  to  the  Turks  and  had  received  the  Syrian  govern- 
ment as  his  reward,  attempted  to  make  himself  independent ;  but 
Suleiman  sent  an  army  against  him  without  delay,  and  the  defeat 
and  death  of  the  rebel  not  only  restored  tranquillity  to  Syria,  but 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  147 

1521 

checked  the  hostile  designs  of  Shah  Ismail,  who  had  assembled  his 
forces  on  the  frontier  and  stood  in  readiness  to  avail  himself  of 
Ottoman  weakness  as  Persia's  opportunity. 

It  was  not,  however,  long  before  Suleiman  was  called  on  to 
display  his  military  abilities  in  foreign  w^arfare,  and  it  was  over 
the  Hungarians  that  his  first  conquests  were  achieved.  There  had 
been  disturbances  and  collisions  on  the  frontiers  of  Hungary  and 
Turkey  in  the  last  part  of  Selim's  reign ;  and  the  weak  prince,  wdio 
filled  the  Magyar  throne,  Louis  II.,  now  imprudently  drew  the  full 
weight  of  the  Ottoman  power  against  his  dominions  by  insulting 
and  putting  to  death  the  ambassador  of  Suleiman,  The  young 
Sultan  instantly  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  a  powerful  army, 
which  was  provided  with  a  large  train  of  heavy  artillery,  and 
arrangements  were  made  for  the  transport  and  regular  delivery  of 
stores  and  supplies,  which  showed  that  Suleiman  possessed  the 
forethought  and  skill,  as  well  as  the  courage,  of  his  father.  The 
Ottoman  soldiery  followed  him  to  battle  with  peculiar  alacrity, 
and  their  military  enthusiasm  was  augmented  by  their  belief  in  his 
auspicious  destiny,  on  account  of  his  name,  on  account  of  the 
prosperous  commencement  of  his  reign,  and  still  more  on  account 
of  the  fortunate  recurrence  of  the  mystical  number  Ten  in  all  that 
related  to  him.  The  Orientals  have  ever  attached  great  importance 
to  numljers,  and  they  esteem  the  number  Ten  the  most  fortunate 
of  all.  Suleiman  was  tlie  tenth  Sultan  of  the  house  of  Othman ; 
he  opened  the  tenth  century  of  the  Hegira;  and  for  these  and 
other  decimal  attributes  he  was  styled  by  his  countrymen  "  the 
Perfecter  of  the  Perfect  Number." 

The  first  campaign  of  Sultan  Suleiman  against  the  Giaours 
was  eminently  successful.  Sabac/^  and  other  places  of  minor  im- 
portance in  Hungary  were  besieged  and  taken  by  his  generals ;  but 
Suleiman  led  his  main  force  in  person  against  Belgrade,  which  long 
had  been  a  bulwark  of  Christendom  against  the  Turks,  and  before 
which  ^Mohammed,  the  captor  of  Constantinople,  had  so  signally 
failed.  P>elgrade  was  now  captured.  August  29.  1521,  and  Sulei- 
man, after  having  turned  the  principal  church  into  a  mosque,  re- 
paired the  fortifications  and  provided  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
city  as  a  Turkish  strongliold,  marched  back  in  triumph  to  Constan- 
tinople, after  his  first  victorious  campaign. 

Under  liis  active  and  skillful  superintendence  new  buildings 
for  ornament  and  use  in  ])eace  and  in  war  rose  rapidly  in  the  prin- 


148  TURKEY 

1522 

cipal  cities  of  the  empire.  The  arsenal  at  Constantinople  was 
enlarged,  and  thousands  of  workmen  were  daily  employed  in  fram- 
ing and  fitting  out  new  squadrons,  and  in  the  preparation  of  naval 
and  military  stores  on  an  unprecedented  scale  of  grandeur.  In 
taking  Belgrade,  Suleiman  had  surmounted  one  of  the  two  shoals 
by  which  the  victorious  career  of  Mohammed  II.  had  been  checked. 
He  now  resolved  to  efface  the  shame  of  the  other  reverse  which 
his  renowned  ancestor  had  sustained,  and  to  make  himself  master 
of  the  Isle  of  Rhodes,  where  the  Christian  Knights  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem  had  so  long  maintained  themselves  near  the  heart  of 
the  Turkish  power.  Indeed,  the  possession  of  Rhodes  by  the  Otto- 
mans was  indispensable  to  free  communication  between  Constan- 
tinople and  her  new  conquests  along  the  Syrian  coasts  and  in  Egypt, 
and  for  the  establishment  of  that  supremacy  of  the  Ottoman  navy 
in  the  east  of  the  Mediterranean  which  Suleiman  was  determined 
to  effect.  On  June  i8,  1522,  the  Ottoman  fleet  of  300  sail  quitted 
Constantinople  for  Rhodes.  Besides  its  regular  crews  and  immense 
cargoes  of  military  stores,  it  carried  8000  chosen  soldiers  and  2000 
pioneers.  At  the  same  time  Suleiman  led  an  army  of  100,000  men 
along  the  w^estern  coast  of  Asia  Minor.  The  place  of  rendezvous 
for  fleet  and  army  was  the  Bay  of  Marmarice.  where,  long  after- 
ward, in  1 80 1,  the  English  fleet  and  army,  under  Sir  Ralph  Aber- 
cromby,  were  mustered  as  allies  of  the  Turks  for  the  reconquest  of 
Egypt  from  the  French. 

The  Grand  Master  of  Rhodes  at  the  time  of  Suleiman's  attack 
was  Villiers  De  Lisle  Adam,  a  French  knight  of  proved  worth  and 
valor.  The  garrison  consisted  of  5000  regular  troops,  600  of 
whom  were  knights.  Besides  these,  the  seafaring  men  of  the  port 
were  formed  into  an  effective  corps ;  the  citizens  were  enrolled  and 
armed ;  the  peasantry,  who  crowded  from  the  rest  of  the  island 
into  the  city  to  escape  the  Turkish  marauders,  were  disciplined  as 
pioneers,  and  the  slaves  were  made  to  work  on  the  fortifications. 
The  defenses  of  the  city  had  been  much  increased  and  improved 
since  the  siege  by  Mohammed  II. 's  troops;  and  even  if  the  outer 
walls  were  breached  and  carried,  there  were  now  inner  lines  of 
strong  walls  prepared  to  check  the  assailants ;  and  several  quarters 
of  the  city  had  their  own  distinct  fortifications,  so  as  to  be  tenable 
(like  the  quarters  of  ancient  Syracuse)  even  after  other  parts  of  the 
city  were  in  possessiDn  of  tlie  besiegers. 

Suleiman  lauded  in  the  island  of  Rliodes  on  July  28,   1522, 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  149 

1522 

and  the  siege  began  on  August  i.  It  was  prolonged  for  nearly- 
live  months  by  the  valor  of  De  Lisle  Adam  and  his  garrison,  and  by 
the  skill  of  his  engineer,  Martinego.  The  war  was  waged  almost 
incessantly  underground  by  mines  and  countermines,  as  well  as  above 
ground  by  cannonade  and  bombardment,  desperate  sallies,  and  still 
more  furious  assaults.  A  breach  vv'as  effected,  and  some  of  the 
bastions  of  the  city  were  shattered  early  in  September,  and  four 
murderous  attempts  at  storming  were  made  and  repulsed  during 
that  month.  Three  more  assaults,  one  on  October  12,  one  on  the 
23d,  and  one  on  November  30,  were  fiercely  given  and  heroically 
withstood,  though  the  effect  of  the  cannonade  on  the  fortifica- 
tions was  more  and  more  visible.  The  Turkish  commanders 
at  length  resolved  to  lavish  no  more  lives  in  attempts  to  storm  the 
city,  but  to  trust  to  their  mines  and  artillery  for  its  gradual  de- 
struction. Advancing  along  trenches  according  to  the  plan  of  grad- 
ual approach  which  since  has  been  habitually  employed,  but  which 
was  previously  unknown,  or,  at  least,  never  used  so  systematically, 
the  Turks  brought  their  batteries  to  bear  closer  and  closer  upon  the 
city,  and  at  length  established  themselves  within  the  first  defenses, 
Suleiman  now  offered  terms  of  capitulation,  and  the  besieged  re- 
luctantly treated  for  a  surrender.  There  were  yet  the  means  of 
prolonging  the  defense ;  but  there  were  no  hopes  of  succor,  and  the 
ultimate  fall  of  the  city  was  certain.  Honorable  terms  might  now 
be  obtained,  the  Order  might  be  preserved,  though  forced  to  seek 
a  home  elsewhere,  and  the  Rhodians  might  gain  protection  from  the 
conqueror  for  person  and  property.  To  continue  their  resistance  un- 
til the  exasperated  enemy  overpowered  them  would  be  not  only  to 
sacrifice  themselves,  but  to  expose  the  citizens  to  massacre,  and 
their  wives  and  daughters  to  the  worst  horrors  of  war.  These 
reasons  weighed  with  De  Lisle  Adam  and  his  knights,  as  with 
truly  brave  men,  and  they  laid  down  their  good  swords  which  they 
had  so  honorably  wielded.  That  they  did  their  duty  to  Christen- 
dom in  their  surrender,  as  well  as  in  their  previous  resistance,  was 
proved  afterward  by  tlie  effectual  check  v.iiich  their  Order  gave 
to  Suleiman  at  Alalta.  How  much  heroism  vrould  the  world  have 
lost  if  the  Knights  of  St.  John  had  obstinately  sought  in  Rhodes 
the  fate  of  Leonidas ! 

By  the  terms  of  capitulation  (December  2,  1522)  which  Sulei- 
man granted  to  the  knights,  he  did  honor  to  unsuccessful  valor,  and 
such  honor  is  reflected  with  double  luster  on  the  generous  victor. 


160  TURKEY 

1523-1525 

The  knights  were  to  be  at  hberty  to  quit  the  island  with  their 
anns  and  property  within  ten  days  in  their  own  galleys,  and  they 
were  to  be  supplied  with  transports  by  the  Turks  if  they  required 
them:  the  Rhodian  citizens,  on  becoming  the  Sultan's  subjects, 
were  to  be  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion ;  their  churches 
were  not  to  be  profaned ;  no  children  were  to  be  taken  from  their 
parents,  and  no  tribute  was  to  be  required  from  the  island  for  five 
years.  The  insubordinate  violence  of  the  Janissaries  caused  some 
infraction  of  these  terms,  but  the  main  provisions  of  the  treaty 
were  fairly  carried  into  effect.  By  Suleiman's  request  an  inter- 
view took  place  between  him  and  the  Grand  Master  before  the 
knights  left  the  island.  Suleiman  addressed,  through  his  inter- 
preter, words  of  respectful  consolation  to  the  Christian  veteran; 
and,  turning  to  the  attendant  Vizier,  the  Sultan  observed :  "  It 
is  not  without  regret  that  I  force  this  brave  man  from  his  home 
in  his  old  age."  Such,  indeed,  was  the  esteem  with  which  the 
valor  of  the  knights  had  inspired  the  Turks  that  they  refrained 
from  defacing  their  armorial  bearings  and  inscriptions  on  the 
buildings.  For  more  than  three  hundred  years  the  Ottomans 
have  treated  the  memory  of  their  brave  foemen  w'ith  the  same  re- 
spect, and  the  escutcheons  of  the  Knights  of  St.  John  who  fought 
against  Sultan  Suleiman  for  Rhodes  still  decorate  the  long-cap- 
tured city. 

Suleiman  had  experienced  the  turbulence  of  the  Janissaries  at 
Rhodes,  and  he  received  three  years  afterward  a  more  serious 
])roof  of  the  necessity  of  keeping  that  formidable  body  constantly 
engaged  in  warfare,  and  under  strict  but  judicious  discipline. 
The  years  1523  and  1524  had  not  been  signalized  by  any  foreign 
war.  The  necessity  of  quelling  a  revolt  of  Ahmed  Pasha,  who  had 
succeeded  Khair  Beg  in  the  government  of  Egypt,  had  occupied 
part  of  the  Ottoman  forces ;  and  after  the  traitor  had  been  de- 
feated and  killed,  Suleiman  sent  his  favorite  Grand  Vizier  Ibra- 
him, a  Greek  renegade,  into  that  important  province  to  resettle 
its  administration  and  assure  its  future  tranquillity.  Suleiman's 
personal  attention  for  the  first  eighteen  months  after  the  campaign 
of  Rhodes  was  earnestly  directed  to  improving  the  internal  gov- 
ernment of  his  empire;  but,  in  the  autumn  of  1525,  he  relaxed  in 
his  devotion  to  llie  toils  of  state,  and,  quitting  his  capital,  he  re- 
paired, for  the  first  time,  to  Adrianople,  and  followed  there  with 
ardor  the  amusement  of  the  chase.     The  Janissaries  began  to  mur- 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  151 

1525-1526 

mur  at  their  Sultan's  forgetfulness  of  war,  and  at  last  they  broke 
out  into  open  brigandage  and  pillaged  the  houses  of  the  principal 
ministers.  Suleiman  returned  to  Constantinople  and  strove  to 
quell  the  storm  by  his  presence.  He  boldly  confronted  the  mutinous 
troops  and  cut  down  two  of  their  ringleaders  with  his  own  hand, 
but  he  was  obliged  to  pacify  them  by  a  donative,  though  he  after- 
ward partly  avenged  himself  by  putting  to  death  many  of  their 
officers  whom  he  suspected  of  having  instigated  or  of  having  neg- 
lected to  check  the  disorder.  He  then  recalled  his  Vizier  Ibrahim 
from  Egypt,  and,  by  his  advice,  determined  to  lead  his  armies  into 
Hungary,  with  which  country  he  was  still  at  war,  though  no  im- 
portant operations  had  taken  place  since  the  campaign  of  Belgrade. 
Suleiman  was  at  this  time  vehemently  urged  to  invade  Hungary 
by  Francis  I.^  of  France,  who  wished  to  distract  the  arms  of  his 
rival  Charles  V. ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  an  ambassador  had  been 
sent  from  Persia,  the  natural  foe  of  Turkey,  to  the  courts  of  Charles 
and  the  King  of  Hungary,  to  form  a  defensive  and  offensive  league 
against  the  Ottomans. 

In  1526  the  Sultan  invaded  Hungary  with  an  army  more  than 
100,000  strong  and  300  pieces  of  artillery.  Like  his  predecessors 
Selim  and  Mohammed  II.,  he  paid  extreme  attention  to  this  im- 
portant arm  of  war,  and  throughout  his  reign  the  artillery  of 
the  Ottomans  was  far  superior  in  number,  in  weight  of  metal,  in 
equipment,  and  in  the  skill  of  the  gunners  to  that  possessed  by 
any  other  nation.  King  Louis  of  Hungary  rashly  gave  battle, 
with  a  far  inferior  force,  to  the  invaders.  The  Hungarian  chivalry 
charged  with  their  wonted  gallantry,  and  a  chosen  band  forced 
their  way  to  where  Suleiman  had  taken  his  station  at  the  head  of 
his  Janissaries.  The  Sultan  owed  his  life  to  his  cuirass,  against 
which  the  lance  of  a  Magyar  knight  was  shivered.  But  the  fiery 
valor  of  the  "  furious  Hun  "  was  vain  against  superior  numbers, 
arms,  and  discipline.  In  less  than  two  hours  the  fate  of  Hungary 
was  decided.  King  Louis,  eight  of  his  bishops,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  the  AIag}'ar  nobles,  and  24,000  Hungarians  of  lower  rank 
had  perished.  Search  was  made  by  the  victors  for  the  body  of 
King  Louis,  which  was  found  in  a  stream  near  the  field  of  battle. 
Louis  had  been  wounded  in  the  head,  and  was  endeavoring  to 
escape,  but  his  horse  was  forced  from  the  bank  by  the  throng  of 

1  After  the  defeat  and  capture  of  Francis   I.   at  Caria,  his  mother,  Louise 
d'Angouleme,  wrote  to   Suleiman,  asking  his  aid  against  Charles  V. 


152  TURKEY 

1526-1529 

the  fliers,  and  the  weiglit  of  liis  armor  bore  him  down  in  the  deep 
water.  The  Sultan  felt  a  generous  sorrow  on  learning  the  fate  of 
his  rival  sovereign,  who  was  nearly  his  equal  in  years.  Suleiman 
exclaimed.  "  ATay  Allali  be  merciful  to  him,  and  punish  those  who 
misled  his  inexperience.  I  came  indeed  in  arms  against  him;  but 
it  was  not  my  wish  that  he  should  thus  be  cut  off,  while  he  had 
scarcely  tasted  the  sweets  of  life  and  royalty."  This  battle  was 
fought  at  jMohacs  on  August  28,  1526,  and  is  still  known  by  the 
terribly  expressive  name  of  "  the  Destruction  of  Mohacs." 

After  this  decisive  victory  Suleiman  marched  along  the  Dan- 
ube to  the  twin  cities  of  Buda  (or  Ofen)  and  Pesth,  on  the  opposite 
banks  of  that  river,  and  the  capital  of  Hungary  at  once  submitted 
to  him.  The  Akindji  swept  the  whole  country  with  fire  and  deso- 
lation, and  it  seemed  as  if  it  was  the  object  of  the  Ottomans  to 
make  a  desert  rather  than  a  province  of  Hungary.  At  last,  at  the 
end  of  September,  Suleiman  began  his  homew-ard  march.  His 
soldiers  were  laden  with  the  richest  plunder,  and  they  drove  be- 
fore them  a  miserable  herd  of  100,000  Christians,  men,  women,  and 
little  children,  destined  for  sale  in  the  Turkish  slave-markets. 

Disturbances  in  Asia  Minor  had  hastened  Suleiman's  departure 
from  Hungary,  but  he  returned  in  the  third  year,  still  more  men- 
acing and  more  formidable.  The  struggle  was  now^  to  be  with 
Austria;  and  the  next  campaign  of  Suleiman,  the  campaign  of 
the  first  siege  of  Vienna,  is  one  of  the  most  important  in  German 
and  in  Ottoman  history. 

Suleiman  entered  Hungary  in  1529  under  the  pretext  of  plac- 
ing on  the  throne  the  rightful  successor  to  King  Louis,  who  fell 
at  Mohacs.  That  prince  died  without  issue,  and  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand  of  Austria,  brother  of  Charles  V.,  claimed  the  crown  as 
Louis's  brother-in-law,  and  by  virtue  of  an  old  treaty.  But  there 
was  an  ancient  law  of  Hungary  by  which  none  but  a  native  prince 
could  occupy  the  throne,  and  a  powerful  noble,  named  Zapolya, 
appealed  to  this  in  opposition  to  Ferdinand,  and  procured  some  of 
the  surviving  magnates  of  the  land  to  elect  him  as  king.  A  civil 
war  ensued,  in  which  the  adherents  of  Ferdinand  and  his  Austrian 
forces  defeated  Zapolya's  troops  and  drove  him  from  the  kingdom. 
Zapolya  then  took  the  desperate  step  of  applying  for  aid  to  the 
Sultan.  Ferdinand,  alarmed  on  hearing  of  this  proceeding  of  his 
rival,  sent  an  embassy  to  Constantinople  to  negotiate  for  a  peace 
with  Suleiman,  or  at  least  to  obtain  a  truce.     Flis  envoys  had  the 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  153 

1529 

ill-timed  boldness  to  require,  at  the  same  time,  the  restoration  of 
Belgrade  and  of  the  chief  places  which  the  Turks  had  captured 
in  Hungary.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  arrogance  shown  by  the 
Ottoman  ministers  to  the  rival  claimants  of  the  Hungarian  throne. 
The  Grand  Vizier  told  the  Polish  Palatine  Lasky,  who  acted  as 
ambassador  for  Zapolya,  that  every  place  where  the  hoof  of  the 
Sultan's  horse  once  trod  became  at  once  and  forever  part  of  the 
Sultan's  dominions.  "  We  have  slain  King  Louis  of  Hungary," 
said  the  Vizier ;  "  his  kingdom  is  now  ours,  to  hold,  or  to  give  to 
whom  we  list.  Thy  master  is  no  king  of  Hungary  till  we  make 
him  so.  It  is  not  the  crown  that  makes  the  king — it  is  the  sword. 
It  is  the  sword  that  brings  men  into  subjection;  and  what  the 
sword  has  won,  the  sword  must  keep."  He  promised,  however, 
that  Zapolya  should  be  king,  and  that  the  Sultan  should  protect 
him  against  Ferdinand  of  Austria  and  all  his  other  enemies.  Sulei- 
man himself  confirmed  his  Vizier's  promise,  and  added,  "  I  will 
be  a  true  friend  to  thy  master.  I  will  march  in  person  to  aid  him. 
I  swear  it,  by  our  Prophet  Mohammed,  the  beloved  of  God,  and  by 
my  saber."  Ferdinand's  ambassadors  were  dismissed  with  indignant 
scorn,  and  they  were  ordered  to  say  from  Suleiman  to  Ferdi- 
nand that  hitherto  there  had  been  little  acquaintance  or  neigh- 
borhood between  them,  but  that  they  soon  should  be  intimate 
enough.  He  would  speedily  visit  Ferdinand,  and  drive  him  from 
the  kingdom  he  had  stolen.  "  Tell  him,"  said  Suleiman,  "  that 
I  will  look  for  him  on  the  field  of  Mohacs,  or  even  in  Pesth;  and 
if  he  fail  to  meet  me  there,  I  will  offer  him  battle  beneath  the  walls 
of  Vienna  itself."  These  were  no  idle  menaces  from  the  Lord  of 
the  Age ;  and  the  forces  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  were  speedily 
mustered  for  the  march  from  Constantinople  to  Vienna. 

Suleiman  left  Constantinople  on  May  lo,  1529,  accompanied  by 
an  army  of  250,000  men  and  300  cannons.  •  A  season  of  almost 
incessant  rain  made  their  march  to  the  Danube  laborious  and  slow, 
and  it  was  September  3  before  the  Sultan's  army  reached  Ofen, 
which  had  been  occupied  by  the  troops  of  Ferdinand  during  the 
preceding  year.  Ofen  was  taken  in  six  days,  and  Zapolya  was 
solemnly  installed  by  the  Turkish  victors  on  the  ancient  throne  of 
the  dynasty  of  Arpad.  The  Sultan  then  continued  his  advance  to 
Vienna,  taking  with  him  his  vassal  king  and  a  corps  of  the  Hun- 
garians who  recognized  Zapolya  as  their  so\ereign. 

With  the  storms  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  the  first  squadrons 


154  TURKEY 

1529 

of  the  terrible  irregular  cavalry  of  the  Turks  swept  round  the  walls 
of  Vienna.  These  Akindji,  30.000  strong,  called  by  the  French 
"  Faucheurs  "  and  "  Ecorcheurs  " — "  mowers  "  and  "  flayers  " — by 
the  Germans  "  Sackmen,"  were  led  by  Michael  Oglu,  the  descend- 
ant of  Michael  of  the  Peaked  Beard,  who  had  been  the  friend  of 
the  first  Othman.  These  ferocious  marauders,  who  received  no 
pay,  and  whose  cruelty  exceeded  even  their  rapacity,  spread  dev- 
astation and  slaughter  throughout  all  Austria  as  far  as  the  River 
Ems.  On  the  eve  of  the  feast-day  of  St.  Wenceslaus,  Septem- 
ber 27,  Suleiman  himself  arrived  with  the  main  Turkish  army 
beneath  Vienna,  and  fixed  the  imperial  headquarters  on  the  high 
ground  to  the  west  of  the  village  of  Simmering.  Twelve  thou- 
sand Janissaries  were  posted  round  the  Sultan's  tent.  Seven 
encampments  were  raised  by  the  various  divisions  of  the  army,  form- 
ing nearly  a  circle  round  Vienna,  and  the  whole  country  west  of 
the  Danube,  far  as  the  eye  could  range  from  the  highest  steeple  in 
the  city,  was  white  with  the  Moslem  tents.  The  water-meadows 
and  islands  of  the  Danube,  and  its  branches  near  the  city,  were 
also  strongly  occupied;  and  a  flotilla  of  400  Turkish  barks,  well- 
manned  and  commanded,  watched  the  city  by  water  and  kept  up 
the  communication  between  the  besieging  troops. 

The  force  that  defended  Vienna  amounted  to  only  16,000  men, 
and  when  the  campaign  began  the  fortifications  of  the  city  con- 
sisted of  little  more  than  a  continuous  wall,  about  six  feet  thick, 
without  bastions;  the  artillery  amounted  to  only  seventy-two 
guns.  King  Ferdinand  had  exerted  himself  earnestly  to  induce 
the  other  German  princes  to  aid  him ;  but  his  brother,  the  Emperor 
Charles,  was  occupied  with  his  own  ambitious  schemes  in  Italy; 
and  the  princes  of  the  empire,  to  whom  Ferdinand  had  appealed 
at  the  Diet  of  Spires,  thought  more  of  their  religious  differences 
with  each  other  than  of  the  common  danger  of  their  fatherland, 
though  warned  by  Ferdinand  that  Sultan  Suleiman  had  declared 
his  determination  to  carry  his  arms  to  the  Rhine.  The  Diet  voted 
aid.  but  it  was  inadequate  and  tardy;  and,  while  the  princes  de- 
liberated, the  Turk  was  in  Austria.  Ferdinand  himself  dreaded 
Suleiman's  threats,  and  kept  aloof  from  Vienna.  But  some  brave 
Christian  leaders  succeeded  in  forcing  their  way  into  the  city  before 
it  was  entirely  beleaguered,  and  a  body  of  Spanish  and  German 
veterans,  under  the  Palgrave  Philip,  proved  an  invaluable  rein- 
forcement to  the  garrison.     But,  though  the  Christian  defenders 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  155 

1529 

of  Vienna  were  few,  they  were  brave  and  well  commanded.  The 
Palgrave  Philip  was  the  nominal  superior,  but  the  veteran  Count 
of  Salm  was  the  real  director  of  the  defense.  All  possible  prepara- 
tions were  made  while  the  Turks  were  yet  approaching-.  The 
suburbs  were  destroyed.  A  new  earthen  rampart  was  raised  within 
the  city ;  the  river  bank  was  palisaded ;  provisions  and  stores  were 
collected ;  and  the  women  and  children  and  all  the  other  inhabitants 
who  were  unable  to  do  service  as  combatants  or  as  laborers  were 
compelled  to  leave  the  city.  Providentially  for  Vienna,  the  inces- 
sant rains,  and  the  consequent  badness  of  the  roads,  had  caused  the 
Turks  to  leave  part  of  their  heaviest  artillery  in  Hungary.  They 
were  obliged  to  rely  chiefly  on  the  effect  of  mines  for  breaching 
the  walls,  but  the  numbers  and  the  zeal  of  the  besiegers  made  the 
fall  of  the  city  apparently  inevitable. 

Many  sallies  and  partial  assaults  took  place,  in  which  great 
gallantry  was  displayed  on  both  sides ;  and  infinite  skill  and  devo- 
tion were  shown  by  the  defenders  in  counteracting  the  mining 
operations  of  their  enemies.  But  the  Ottoman  engineers  succeeded 
in  springing  several  mines,  which  tore  open  large  gaps  in  the 
defenses,  and  on  three  consecutive  days,  October  lo,  ii,  and  12, 
the  Turks  assaulted  the  city  with  ruthless  desperation,  but  were 
repelled  with  heavy  carnage  by  the  steady  valor  of  the  besieged. 
The  Ottoman  forces  now  began  to  suffer  severely  by  scarcity  of 
provisions  and  by  the  inclemency  of  the  season,  and  the  slaughter 
which  had  fallen  on  their  best  troops  filled  the  army  with  discour- 
agement. But  it  was  resolved  to  make  one  more  attempt  to  carry 
Vienna,  and  on  October  14  the  Turkish  infantry,  in  three  huge  col- 
umns, charged  up  to  the  breach,  which  their  miners  and  cannoneers 
had  rent  for  their  road  to  victory  and  plunder.  Suleiman  had 
endeavored  to  stimulate  their  courage  and  emulation  by  a  liberal 
distribution  of  money,  and  by  the  promise  of  high  rank  and  wealth 
to  the  Moslem  who  should  be  first  on  the  crest  of  the  breach.  The 
Grand  Vizier  and  the  highest  officers  of  the  army  accompanied  the 
stormers,  and  when  the  Christian  cannons  and  musketry  roared 
forth  their  deadly  welcome  and  the  dispirited  Mohammedans  reeled 
back  from  tlie  blood-stained  ruins,  the  Tin-kish  chiefs  were  seen 
amid  the  confusion,  striving,  after  the  old  Oriental  custom,  to  force 
their  men  on  again  to  the  assault  by  blows  with  stick  and  whip  and 
sword.  But  even  the  best  veterans  now  sullenly  refused  obedience, 
and  said  that  they  had  rather  be  killed  by  the  sabers  of  their  own 


166  TURKEY 

1529 

officers  than  by  the  long  muskets  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  German 
spits,  as  they  called  the  long  swords  of  the  lanzknechts.  About 
three  in  the  afternoon  the  Turkish  engineers  sprung  two  new 
mines,  which  threw  down  much  more  of  the  wall,  and  under  cover  of 
a  fire  from  all  their  batteries  the  Sultan's  troops  were  again  formed 
into  columns,  and  brought  forward  once  more  up  to  the  breach. 
It  was  only  to  heap  it  again  with  Turkish  dead.  The  hero  of  the 
defense,  Count  Salm,  received  a  wound  on  the  last  day  of  the  siege 
that  proved  ultimately  fatal:  but  though  other  chiefs  had  fallen; 
though  the  Ottoman  shot  and  shell  had  told  severely  among  the 
Christian  ranks;  though  many  brave  men  had  perished  in  sorties 
and  in  hand-to-hand  conflict  in  the  breaches;  and  though  many 
had  been  swept  away  by  the  bursting  of  the  Turkish  mines,  the 
courage  of  the  garrison  grew  higher  and  higher  at  each  encounter 
with  their  lately  boastful  but  now  despairing  foes,  Suleiman  him- 
self felt  at  last  compelled  to  abandon  the  favorite  project  of  his 
heart,  and  drew  his  troops  finally  back  from  the  much-coveted  city. 
October  14,  the  day  on  which  Vienna  was  saved  from  the  greatest 
of  the  Sultans,  is  marked  by  the  German  historian,  Von  Hammer, 
as  being  made  memorable  in  his  country's  history  by  many  great 
events.  It  is  thfe  day  of  the  fall  of  Breisach  (1639),  of  the  Peace  of 
Westphalia  (1648),  of  the  battle  of  Hochkirken  (1758),  of  the 
surrender  of  Ulm  (1805),  of  the  battle  of  Jena  (1806),  and  of  the 
overthrow  of  Napoleon  at  the  battle  of  the  nations  at  Leipsic  in 

1813. 

It  was  near  midnight,  after  the  repulse  of  Suleiman's  last  as- 
sault upon  Vienna,  that  its  full  effect  appeared.  The  Janissaries 
then,  by  the  Sultan's  order,  struck  their  tents;  and  all  the  spoil 
which  had  been  swept  into  the  Turkish  camp,  and  which  could  not 
be  carried  away,  was  given  to  the  flames.  At  the  same  time,  the 
disappointed  and  savage  soldiery  commenced  a  general  massacre 
of  ten  thousand  Christian  captives,  whom  the  deadly  activity  of 
the  Akindji  had  brought  in  during  the  three  weeks  of  the  siege. 
The  fairest  girls  and  boys  were  preserved  to  be  led  into  slavery, 
but  the  rest  were  put  to  the  sword  or  thrown  yet  alive  into  the 
flames  without  mercy.  After  this  last  act  of  barbarous  but  im- 
potent malignity,  the  Turkish  army  retreated  from  Vienna.^   Sulei- 

2  It  is  probable  that  the  mustering  of  70,000  imperial  troops  who  threatened 
the  Turkish  communications  had  its  effect  in  causing  the  abandonment  of  the 
siege — Eu. 


SULEIMAN     THE     GREAT  157 

1529-1533 

man's  courtiers  pretended  to  congratulate  him  as  victorious;  and 
he  himself  assumed  the  tone  of  a  conqueror,  whom  the  fugitive 
Ferdinand  had  not  dared  to  meet,  and  who  had  magnanimously 
retired  after  chastising,  though  not  destroying,  his  foes.  But  the 
reverse  which  he  had  sustained  was  felt  deeply  by  him  through- 
out his  life,  and  it  was  said  that  he  laid  a  curse  upon  any  of  his 
descendants  who  should  renew  the  enterprise  against  Vienna. 
There  is  no  foundation  for  the  charge  which  later  writers  have 
brought  against  the  Grand  Vizier  Ibrahim,  of  having  been  bribed 
to  betray  his  master,  and  to  baffle  the  operations  of  the  besiegers. 
The  city  was  saved  by  the  heroism  of  her  defenders,  aided,  un- 
questionably, by  the  severity  of  the  season,  which  the  Asiatic  troops 
in  the  Ottoman  army  could  ill  endure,  and  by  the  insubordination 
of  the  impatient  Janissaries.  But,  whatever  be  the  cause  assigned 
to  it,  the  repulse  of  Suleiman  from  Vienna  is  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  world. 

The  tide  of  Turkish  conquest  in  central  Europe  had  now  set 
its  mark.  The  wave  once  again  dashed  as  far,  but  only  to  be  again 
broken,  and  then  to  recede  forever. 


Chapter    XI 

LAST   YEARS    OF   THE    EPOCH    OF    SULEIMAN   THE 
GREAT.     1533-1566 

PEACE  was  concluded  between  the  Sultan  and  Ferdi- 
nand in  1533,  by  which  Hungary  was  divided  between 
Ferdinand  and  Zapolya.  Suleiman  had,  in  the  interval, 
again  invaded  Germany  with  forces  even  stronger  than  those  which 
he  led  against  Vienna;  and  as  Charles  V.,  on  this  occasion  (1532), 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  the  empire  which  gathered 
zealously  around  him.  a  decisive  conflict  between  the  two  great 
potentates  of  Christendom  and  Islam  was  anxiously  expected.  But 
Suleiman  was  checked  in  his  advance  by  the  obstinate  defense  of 
the  little  town  of  Giins,  and  on  August  29.  1532,  after  honorable 
terms  had  been  granted  to  the  brave  garrison  of  that  place.  Sulei- 
man, finding  that  Charles  did  not  come  forward  to  meet  him,  but 
remained  posted  near  Vienna,  turned  aside  from  the  line  of  march 
against  that  city,  and  after  desolating  Styria  returned  to  his  own 
dominions.  Each,  probably,  of  these  two  great  sovereigns  was  un- 
willing to  risk  life,  and  empire,  and  the  glorious  fruits  of  so  many 
years  of  toil  and  care  on  the  event  of  a  single  day:  and  neither 
was  sorry  that  his  adversary's  lukewarmness  for  battle  furnished 
a  credible  excuse  for  his  own.  The  warlike  energies  of  the  Otto- 
mans were  now  for  some  time  chiefly  employed  in  the  East,  where 
the  unremitted  enmity  of  Persia  to  Turkey,  and  the  consequent 
wars  between  these  two  great  Alohammedan  powers,  were  a  cause 
of  relief  to  Christendom,  which  her  diplomatists  of  that  age  freely 
acknowledged.  Suleiman  led  his  armies  against  the  Persians  in 
several  campaigns  (1533,  1534.  1535,  1548.  1553.  1554),  during 
which  the  Turks  often  suffered  severely  through  the  difficult  nature 
of  the  countries  tlirough  which  they  traversed,  as  well  as  through 
the  bravery  and  activity  of  the  enemy.  But  the  Sultan  effected 
many  important  conquests.  Pie  added  to  the  Ottoman  Empire 
large  territories  in  Armenia  and  ^Mesopotamia,  and  the  strong 
cities  of  Erivan.  Van,  J\Iosul,  and,  above  all,  of  Bagdad,  which  rhe 
Orientals  call  "The  Mansion  of  Victory." 

158 


LAST     YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  159 

1547 

The  modern  Turk,  who  seeks  consolation  in  remembering  the 
glories  of  the  Great  Suleiman,  must  dwell  with  peculiar  satisfac- 
tion on  the  tokens  of  respectful  fear  which  his  nation  then  received 
from  the  most  powerful,  as  well  as  from  the  weaker,  states  of 
Christendom.  And  the  year  1547  is  made  a  peculiarly  proud  one 
in  the  annals  of  the  house  of  Othman  by  the  humble  concession 
which  its  rival,  the  Austrian  house  of  Hapsburg,  was  then  com- 
pelled to  make  to  its  superior  strength  and  fortune.  The  war  in 
Hungary  had  been  renewed  in  consequence  of  the  death  of  John 
Zapolya  in  1539,  upon  which  event  Ferdinand  claimed  the  whole 
of  Hungary,  while  the  widow"  of  Zapoyla  implored  the  assistance 
of  the  Sultan  in  behalf  of  her  infant  son.  Suleiman  poured  his 
armies  into  that  country,  and  in  1541  and  the  following  years  he 
again  commanded  in  person  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube.  He  pro- 
fessed the  intention  of  placing  the  young  Prince  Zapolya  on  the 
throne  of  Hungary  and  Transylvania,  when  he  should  have  at- 
tained tlie  age  of  manhood;  but  Ofen  and  the  other  chief  cities 
were  now  garrisoned  with  Turkish  troops ;  the  country  was  allotted 
into  Sanjaks,  over  which  Turkish  governors  were  appointed,  and 
the  Ottoman  provincial  system  was  generally  established.  The 
strong  cities  of  Gran,  Stuhlweissenburg,  and  many  others  were 
taken  by  the  Turks  in  this  war;  and  though  their  success  was  not 
unvaried,  the  general  advantage  was  so  far  on  the  side  of  the 
Sultan  that  as  early  as  1544  Charles  V.  and  Ferdinand  made 
overtures  for  peace,  and  in  1547  a  truce  for  five  years  was  con- 
cluded, which  left  the  Sultan  in  possession  of  nearly  the  whole 
of  Hungary  and  Translyvania,  and  which  bound  Ferdinand  to  pay 
to  the  Sublime  Porte  30,000  ducats  a  year — a  payment  which  the 
Austrians  called  a  present,  but  the  Ottoman  historians  more  cor- 
rectly term  a  tribute. 

This  treaty,  to  which  the  Emperor  Charles,  the  Pope,  the  King 
of  France,  and  the  Republic  of  Venice  were  parties,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  recognition  by  Christendom  of  the  truth  of  Suleiman's 
title,  "  Sahiiji  Kiran,"  *'  Lord  of  his  Age."  Austrian  pride,  in- 
deed, had  previously  stooped  so  low  before  the  Sultan  that  King 
Ferdinand,  when  seeking  peace  in  1533,  consented  to  style  himself 
tlie  brother  of  Ibrahim.  Suleiman's  fa^•orite  minister,  and  thus  to 
place  himself  on  the  level  of  a  Turkish  Vizier.  Francis  L  had 
repeatedly  sought  the  aid  of  Suleiman  in  the  most  deferential  and 
submissive  terms.     That  aid  was  more  than  once  effectively  given 


160 


TURKEY 


1547 


by  the  Turkish  invasions  of  Hiing-ary  and  Germany,  which  com- 
pelled the  emperor  to  draw  the  weight  of  his  arms  from  off  France, 
and,  still  more  directly,  by  the  Turkish  fleets  which  were  sent 
into  the  Alediterranean  to  attack  the  enemies  of  the  French  king. 
England  during  the  reign  of  Suleiman  had  no  need  of  foreign 
help;  but  we  shall  see  her  in  the  reign  of  Suleiman's  grandson, 
when  menaced  by  the  power  of  Spain,  have  recourse  to  the  Sub- 


lime Porte  for  aid  and  protection,  as  respectfully  and  earnestly  as 
the  proudest  Follower  of  the  Prophet  could  desire. 

We  have  hitherto  directed  our  chief  attention  to  the  military 
history  of  Suleiman's  reign,  but  the  awe  which  the  Ottoman 
Empire  inspired  in  this  age  was  due  not  only  to  the  successes 
gained  by  the  Turkish  armies,  but  also  to  the  achievements  of  the 
Turkish  na\-y,  which  extended  the  power  and  the  renown  of  Sul- 
tan Suleiman  along  all  the  coast  of  the  ^Mediterranean,  and  in  the 
more  remote  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Indian  Ocean.  His 
predecessors  had  devoted  much  care  and  treasure  to  the  maritime 
force  of  their  empire,  but  they  were  all  surpassed  in  this  respect 
by  Suleiman,  and  the  skill  and  valor  of  his  admirals  made  the 
Ottoman  flag  almost  as  formidable  by  sea  as  it  was  by  land.     The 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  161 

1518-1532 

most  celebrated  of  the  Turkish  naval  commanders  in  this  reign  was 
Khaireddin  Pasha,  better  known  in  Europe  by  the  surname  of 
Barbarossa.  It  was  principally  by  his  means  that  the  piratical 
states  of  North  Africa  placed  themselves  under  the  sovereignty  of 
the  Sultan,  and  that  the  naval  resources  of  the  Sublime  Porte  were 
augmented  by  the  commodious  havens,  the  strong  forts  and  cities, 
the  well-built  and  well-found  squadrons,  and  the  daring  and  skill- 
ful corsairs  of  Algiers,  Tripoli,  and  Tunis. 

Barbarossa  was  born  in  the  island  of  Mitylene.  His  father,  a 
Spahi  of  Rumelia,  had  settled  there  when  the  island  was  con- 
quered by  Mohammed  IP  Of  four  sons,  the  eldest,  Ishak,  traded 
as  a  merchant  in  Mitylene;  the  other  three,  Elias,  Urudsch,  and 
Khizo,  afterward  called  Khaireddin,  practiced  commerce  and 
piracy  conjointly  during  the  reign  of  Bayezid  IP  and  Selim. 
Elias  fell  in  a  sea-fight  with  the  Knights  of  Rhodes.  Urudsch 
was  taken  prisoner,  but  was  released  through  the  influence  of 
Prince  Korkud,  then  governor  of  Carmania.  Ui"udsch  and 
Khaireddin  next  practiced  as  bold  and  fortunate  sea-rovers  under 
Mohammed,  the  Sultan  of  Tunis.  They  saw,  however,  the  feeble- 
ness of  the  IMohammedan  princes  of  the  North  African  seaports, 
and  they  knew  the  strength  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  especially 
under  such  a  ruler  as  Selim.  They  paid  court  therefore  to  the 
Sublime  Porte  by  sending  one  of  their  richest  prizes  to  Constan- 
tinople, and  received  in  return  two  galleys  and  robes  of  honor. 
They  now  made  themselves  masters  of  some  small  towns  on  the 
African  coast,  and,  being  joined  by  their  brother,  Ishak,  the  mer- 
chant of  Mitylene,  they  increased  their  squadron,  and  succeeded 
in  taking  possession  by  force  or  by  stratagem  of  Tennes  and  Tel- 
messan,  and  also  of  the  strong  city  of  Algiers.  Ishak  and  Urudsch 
soon  after  this  fell  in  battle  with  the  Spaniards,  and  Khaireddin 
was  left  sole  master  of  their  conquests.  He  formally  recognized 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Turkish  Sultan,  and  received  from  Selim 
the  regular  insignia  of  office,  a  saber,  a  horse,  and  a  banner,  as 
Begler  Beg  of  Algiers.  Khaireddin  carried  on  active  war  against 
the  Spaniards  and  the  independent  Arab  tribes  of  North  Africa. 
He  took  from  the  Si)aniards  the  little  island  in  front  of  the  port 
of  Algiers,  which  had  for  fourteen  years  been  in  their  occupation ; 
and  he  defeated  and  captured  a  Spanish  squadron  which  was  sent 
to  succor  the  garrison.  Acting  steadily  up  to  his  policy  of  pro- 
fessing allegiance  to  the  Sublime  Porte,  Barbarossa  sent  regular 


162  TURKEY 

1532-1537 

reports  of  his  operations  to  Constantinople,  and  desisted,  in  obe- 
dience to  orders  received  thence,  from  attacking  the  ships  or  coasts 
of  France,  when  that  country  became  connected  by  treaty  with 
Turkey.  The  Sea-King  of  Algiers  was  now  required  by  Sultan 
Suleiman  to  measure  himself  with  a  formidable  opponent  in  the 
Genoese  Doria,  the  favorite  admiral  of  Charles  V.  Barbarossa 
repulsed  Doria's  attack  on  the  island  of  Djerbel,  and  then,  joining 
his  galleys  with  those  of  the  corsair,  Sinan,  he  sailed  in  triumph 
along  the  Genoese  coast,  which  he  swept  with  fire  and  devastation. 
He  next  conveyed  70,000  of  the  persecuted  Moors  of  Spain  from 
Andalusia  to  strengthen  his  own  Algerine  dominions.  In  the  mean- 
while Doria  had  captured  from  the  Turks  the  city  of  Koron,  in 
the  Morea;  and  Suleiman,  who  recognized  in  Barbarossa  the  only 
Mohammedan  admiral  that  could  compete  with  the  Genoese  hero, 
sent  for  Khaireddin  to  consult  with  him  at  Constantinople  as  to 
the  best  mode  of  carrying  on  the  war  by  sea  against  the  Spaniards. 
Khaireddin  set  sail  from  Algiers  in  1533  in  obedience  to  his 
Padishah's  commands,  with  eighteen  vessels,  five  of  which  be- 
longed to  pirates,  who  had  volunteered  into  the  Sultan's  service; 
and  he  captured  on  the  voyage  two  of  Doria's  galleys.  He  was 
received  by  the  Sublime  Porte  with  the  highest  honor,  and  under 
his  personal  direction  the  arsenals  of  Constantinople  were  busy 
throughout  that  winter  with  the  equipment  of  a  powerful  fleet  of 
eighty-four  vessels  (including  the  Algerine  squadron),  with  which 
Barbarossa  sailed  for  Italy  in  the  spring  of  1534,  while  Suleiman 
was  commencing  his  campaign  against  Persia.  Barbarossa,  now 
Khaireddin  Pasha,  sacked  Reggio,  Speronga,  and  Fondi.  His 
attack  on  the  last-mentioned  place  was  made  principally  in  the 
hope  of  surprising  and  carrying  off  the  celebrated  beauty  of  the 
age.  Giulia  Gonzaga,  the  wife  of  Vespasian  Gonzaga.  Barbarossa 
wished  to  present  her  as  a  courtly  offering  to  Suleiman,  and  he 
designed  that  the  flower  of  the  fair  of  Christendom  should  shine 
in  his  Sultan's  harem.  Barbarossa's  crews  landed  stealthily  in  the 
night  and  assailed  Fondi  so  vigorously  that  the  beautiful  Giulia 
was  only  roused  from  sleep  by  the  alarm  that  the  Turks  were  in  her 
palace.  Evading  their  hot  pursuit  with  the  greatest  difficulty  and 
danger,  she  was  set  on  horseback  in  her  nightdress  by  an  Italian 
cavalier,  who  rescued  and  rode  off  with  her  to  a  place  of  safety. 

After    plundering    the    Neapolitan    coasts    Barbarossa    sailed 
across  to  Africa    and  captured  Tunis,  which  had  long  been  the  ob- 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  163 

1537-1543 

ject  of  his  ambition.  He  did  not,  however,  retain  this  prize  more 
than  five  months.  The  Moorish  prince,  whom  he  expelled,  im- 
plored the  assistance  of  Charles  V.,  and  the  emperor  led  to  Tunis 
an  army  and  fleet  of  such  strength  that  Barbarossa,  after  a  brave 
and  skillful  defense,  was  obliged  to  abandon  the  city.  The  cold- 
blooded and  unsparing  cruelty  with  which,  after  Barbarossa's 
retreat,  the  unresisting  and  unoffending  city  was  sacked  by  the 
Christian  forces  which  had  come  thither  as  the  nominal  allies  of 
its  rightful  king,  equaled  the  worst  atrocities  that  have  ever  been 
imputed  to  the  Turks. 

Though  driven  from  Tunis,  Khaireddin  was  still  strong  at 
Algiers,  and,  sailing  from  that  port  with  seventeen  galleys,  he 
took  revenge  on  Spain  by  plundering  Minorca,  and  he  then  repaired 
to  Constantinople,  where  the  Sultan  conferred  on  him  the  highest 
naval  dignity,  that  of  Capudan  Pasha.  In  1537  he  again  desolated 
the  shores  of  Italy ;  and  when  Venice  took  part  in  the  war  against 
the  Sublime  Porte,  Barbarossa  captured  from  her  nearly  all  the 
islands  that  she  had  possessed  in  the  Archipelago,  and  the  cities 
of  Napoli  di  Romania  and  Castel  Nuovo.  He  recovered  Koron 
from  the  Spaniards,  and  on  September  28,  1538,  engaged  the  com- 
bined fleets  of  the  Pope,  Venice,  and  the  emperor  in  a  great  battle 
off  Prevesa.  Barbarossa  on  this  occasion  practiced  the  bold  ma- 
neuver of  cutting  the  line,  which  Rodney,  St.  Vincent,  and  Nelson 
afterward  made  so  celebrated  in  the  English  navy.  The  Turkish 
admiral's  force  was  inferior  to  the  enemy  in  number  and  size  of 
vessels  and  in  weight  of  metal,  but  by  seamanship  and  daring 
Barbarossa  gained  a  complete  and  glorious  victory,  though  the 
coming  on  of  night  enabled  the  defeated  Christians  to  escape  with- 
out very  heavy  loss. 

The  disastrous  reverse  which  Charles  V.  sustained  when  he 
attacked  Algiers  in  1541  was  chiefly  the  work  of  the  elements. 
Barbarossa  commanded  the  Turkish  fleet  sent  by  Suleiman  to  pro- 
tect Algiers,  but  he  was  detained  in  harbor  l^y  the  same  tempest 
that  shattered  the  sliips  of  Spain.  The  last  great  service  in  which 
Khaireddin  was  employed  by  the  Sultan  was  in  1543.  when  he 
was  sent  with  the  Turkish  fleet  to  assist  Francis  I.,  and  acted  in 
conjunction  with  the  French  squadron  in  the  Mediterranean.  He 
captured  the  city  of  Nice,  though  the  castle  held  out  against  him ; 
and  he  is  said  to  have  roughly  reproved  the  French  officers  for 
their  negligence    and  for  the  defective  state  of  their  shins  as  to 


164  TURKEY 

1544-1546 

equipment  and  necessary  stores.  The  allies,  whom  he  came  to 
protect,  were  obliged  to  listen  submissively  to  his  rebukes,  and  it 
was  only  by  the  earnest  entreaties  and  apologies  of  the  French 
admiral,  the  Due  d'Enghien,  that  the  choler  of  the  old  Turkish 
veteran  was  appeased. 

During  the  later  years  of  Barbarossa's  life  he  was,  when  not 
employed  at  sea,  a  regular  attendant,  as  Capudan  Pasha,  at  the 
Divan  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  where  the  counsels  of  the  old  admiral 
were  always  listened  to  with  respect.  He  died  in  1546,  and  his 
tomb  on  the  side  of  the  Bosphorus  near  Beshiktash  still  invites 
attention  by  the  romantic  beauty  of  its  site,  and  by  the  recollection 
of  the  bold  corsair  who  sleeps  there  by  the  side  of  the  sounding 
sea,  which  so  long  he  ruled.  His  wealth  had  been  principally 
devoted  by  him  to  the  foundation  of  a  college :  a  striking  tribute 
to  the  general  respect  for  literature  and  science  which  prevailed  in 
Suleiman's  court,  and  which  exercised  its  influence  even  over  the 
rugged  temper  of  Barbarossa,  who,  from  the  circumstances  of  his 
early  life,  could  not  possibly  have  been  a  Turkish  Raleigh. 

Some,  however,  of  the  Ottoman  admirals  were  themselves 
eminent  for  their  scientific  attainments,  and  for  their  contributions 
to  the  literature  of  the  country.  Such  were  Piri  Reis  and  Sidi 
Ali,  two  of  the  commanders  of  the  squadrons  which  by  Suleiman's 
orders  were  equipped  in  the  ports  of  the  Red  Sea,  and  which, 
issuing  thence,  conquered  for  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople  the 
port  of  Aden,  which  England  now  possesses  and  justly  values  for 
its  important  position  in  the  line  of  European  commerce  with 
India  by  the  Red  Sea  and  Egypt,  Many  other  cities  and  districts 
on  the  coasts  of  Arabia,  Persia,  and  the  northwest  of  India  were 
added  to  the  Ottoman  Empire;  and  many  gallant  contests  were 
sustained  with  the  Portuguese,  as  well  as  with  the  native  rulers, 
by  the  Turkish  admirals,  the  octogenarian  Suleiman  Pasha,  and 
]\Iurad,  and  the  two  whose  names  have  been  already  mentioned. 
Piri  Reis  was  the  author  of  two  geographical  works,  one  on  the 
/Egean  and  one  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  in  which  their  currents, 
their  soundings,  their  harbors,  and  their  best  landing-places  were 
described  from  personal  surveys.  Sidi  Ali  was  a  poet  as  well  as 
a  sailor,  and  besides  his  productions  in  verse,  he  wTote  a  descrip- 
tion of  his  travel  overland  to  Constantinople  from  Geejerat,  where 
his  fleet  had  been  damaged  by  tempests  so  as  to  be  no  longer  able 
to  cope  with  the  Portuguese.     Sidi  Ali  was  also  the  author  of 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  165 

1546-1560 

several  mathematical  and  nautical  treatises,  and  of  a  work  called 
"  Mouhit,"  on  the  navigation  of  the  Indian  Sea,  which  he  drew 
from  the  best  Arabian  and  Persian  authorities  of  his  time  on  the 
subject  of  India. 

Two  other  Turkish  admirals  of  this  reign  must  not  be  omitted, 
Dragut  (more  correctly  called  Torghud)  and  Piali.  Piali  was  a 
Croatian  by  birth,  Dragut  was  born  a  subject  of  the  Sultan,  but 
of  Christian  parentage.  Early  in  life  he  joined  the  crew  of  a 
Turkish  galley  and  was  chosen  captain  of  a  band  of  thirty  sea- 
rovers.  He  collected  a  force  of  thirty  vessels  and  attacked  the 
Island  of  Corsica,  but  was  defeated  by  Doria,  who  took  him  pris- 
oner and  chained  him  to  the  bench  of  his  galley,  where  Dragut 
toiled  at  the  victor's  oar  for  many  a  weary  month.  At  last  Barba- 
rossa  rescued  him  by  threatening  to  lay  Genoa  waste  if  Dragut 
was  not  set  free ;  and  under  the  patronage  of  Khaireddin,  Dragut 
soon  reappeared  on  the  waves,  chief  of  a  squadron  of  twenty  galleys, 
that  spread  terror  along  the  coasts  of  Italy  and  Spain.  He  made 
himself  master  of  Mehedia  and  Tripoli,  and,  following  the  example 
of  Barbarossa,  he  acknowledged  himself  to  be  the  Sultan's  vassal, 
and  received  in  return  high  rank  and  substantial  aid  from  Constan- 
tinople. The  Spaniards  took  Mehedia  from  him;  but  Dragut  had 
more  than  once  the  advantage  of  Doria  in  their  encounters,  and 
was  almost  as  much  dreaded  in  the  Alediterranean  as  Barbarossa 
himself.  His  boldness  of  spirit  was  shown  even  toward  the  Sultan. 
He  had  on  one  occasion  been  tempted  by  the  sight  of  a  rich  fleet 
of  Venetian  argosies,  and  had  captured  them,  though  there  was 
peace  at  that  time  between  the  Republic  of  St.  ]\Iark  and  the  Porte. 
Dragut  was  ordered  to  Constantinople  to  ansv^er  for  this  outrage, 
and,  as  the  Grand  Vizier  Rustam  was  his  enemy,  his  head  was  in 
serious  peril.  But  Dragut,  instead  of  obeying  the  order  of  recall, 
sailed  out  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar  and  took  service  under  the 
Emperor  of  Morocco,  until  Suleiman,  after  Barbarossa's  death, 
recalled  him  by  pledge  of  pardon  and  ample  promises  of  promotion. 
We  shall  soon  have  occasion  to  notice  his  final  services  and  death 
at  tlie  siege  of  Malta. 

Piali  Pasha  was  cliiefly  signalized  during  the  reign  of  Suleiman 
by  the  capture  of  Oran,  and  by  the  great  defeat  which  he  gave  in 
1560  to  the  combined  Christian  fleets  that  were  destined  for  Tripc^li 
and  the  isle  of  Djerba.  Two  hundred  vessels  were  prepared  for 
this  expedition  by  the  Pope,  and  l)y  the  rulers  of  Genoa,  Florence, 


166  TURKEY 

1546-1560 

Malta,  Sicily,  and  Naples.  Doria  was  high  admiral  of  the  fleet, 
and  Don  Alvaro  de  Sandi  commanded  the  army  which  it  convoyed. 
The  fleet  effected  the  passage  to  Djerba  in  safety;  the  troops  were 
landed,  the  island  nearly  subdued,  and  a  fortress  erected.  But 
before  the  Christian  galleys  left  the  waters  of  Djerba,  Piali  had 
heard  of  the  attack,  and  had  left  the  Dardanelles  with  a  fleet  which 
was  reinforced  at  Modon  by  the  squadrons  of  the  governors  of 
Rhodes  and  Mitylene.  On  May  14,  1560,  he  attacked  Doria's  fleet 
and  completely  defeated  it.  Twenty  galleys  and  twenty-seven 
transports  of  the  Christians  were  destroyed ;  seven  galleys  ran  for 
shelter  up  the  channels  of  Djerba,  w^here  they  were  subsequently 
captured ;  the  rest  fled  to  Italy,  leaving  their  comrades  of  the  land 
forces  to  be  besieged  and  captured  in  their  new  fortress  by  the 
troops  whom  the  active  Piali  soon  brought  together  against  them. 
On  September  27  Piali  reentered  the  harbor  of  Constantinople  in 
triumph.  He  had  previously  sent  a  vessel  to  announce  his  victory, 
which  appeared  in  the  Golden  Horn  with  the  captured  high  standard 
of  Spain  trailing  in  the  sea  behind  her  stem.  On  the  day  of  the 
arrival  of  Piali,  Suleiman  went  to  the  kiosk  of  his  palace,  at  the 
water's  edge,  to  honor  with  his  presence  the  triumphal  procession 
of  his  Capudan  Pasha.  Don  Alvaro  and  other  Christian  prisoners 
of  high  rank  were  placed  conspicuously  on  the  poop  of  the  Ottoman 
admiral's  galley,  and  the  captured  vessels  were  towed  along  rud- 
derless and  dismasted.  Those  who  were  near  Sultan  Suleiman 
observed  that  his  aspect  on  this  proud  day  of  triumph  bore  the  same 
grave  and  severely  calm  expression  which  was  its  usual  character- 
istic. The  ambassador  of  King  Ferdinand,  who  was  present,  attrib- 
uted his  stoical  composure  to  magnanimity,  and  admired  "  the  great 
heart  of  that  old  sire,"  which  received  unmoved  anything  that  for- 
tune could  bring. 

Glorious,  indeed,  and  prosperous  as  had  been  the  reign  of 
Suleiman  the  Magnificent,  he  had,  as  a  man,  drunken  deeply  of 
sorrow  and  remorse,  and  the  Erinyes  of  family  bloodshed,  that  for 
so  many  centuries  had  haunted  the  house  of  Othman,  were  fatally 
active  in  his  generation.  To  be  friendless  is  the  common  penalty  of 
despotic  power ;  and  Suleiman  must  have  felt  it  the  more  severely 
inasmuch  as  he  appears  naturally  to  have  had  a  capacity  for  friend- 
ship and  to  have  sought  earnestly  for  it  in  the  early  part  of  his 
reign.  His  celebrated  Grand  Vizier,  Ibrahim,  was  for  many  years 
not  only  his  most  trusted  councilor  and  general,  but  the  companion 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  167 

1536-1558 

of  his  pleasures  and  his  studies.  Yet  his  suspicions  were  at  last 
raised  against  the  overpowerful  and  incautious  favorite,  and  a 
Vizier  whom  a  Sultan  begins  to  dread  has  not  long  to  live.  Ibrahim 
was  married  to  Suleiman's  sister,  but  not  even  this  close  affinity 
could  save  him.  Ibrahim  came  to  the  palace  at  Constantinople  on 
March  5,  1536,  to  dine  with  the  Sultan,  as  was  his  custom;  and 
when  on  the  next  morning  messengers  from  his  home  came  to 
seek  him,  they  found  him  strangled.  The  state  of  his  body  showed 
that  he  had  struggled  hard  for  life,  and  a  hundred  years  after- 
ward the  traces  of  his  blood  on  the  palace  walls  were  pointed  out, 
fearful  warnings  of  the  lot  that  awaited  those  who  sought  to  win 
their  entrance  there  as  royal  favorites.  Von  Hammer  gives  a  long 
list  of  other  high  officers  whom  Suleiman  once  honored  and  trusted, 
but  whom  he  ultimately  gave  to  the  fatal  bowstring.  But  these  acts 
of  severity  seem  slight  compared  with  the  deaths  of  the  princes 
of  his  own  race  who  perished  by  his  orders.  Having  been  an 
only  son,  Suleiman  was  spared  the  guilt  of  fratricide  on  his  acces- 
sion to  the  throne,  but  he  showed  repeatedly  in  the  course  of  his 
reign  that  when  state  necessity  called  for  blood,  the  holiest  feelings 
of  humanity  interposed  in  vain.  His  cousin,  the  descendant  of  the 
unfortunate  Prince  Djem,  who  came  into  his  power  when  Rhodes 
was  taken,  was  put  to  death  with  all  his  family  by  Suleiman's  com- 
mand, and  there  was  still  nearer  and  dearer  blood  upon  his  hands. 
While  Suleiman  was  still  young,  a  Russian  girl  in  his  harem, 
named  Khurrem  ^  (which  means  "the  joyous  one"),  had 
gained  an  almost  unbounded  influence  over  him  by  her  beauty  and 
liveliness ;  and  such  was  the  fascination  of  her  manners — so  attrac- 
tive and  soothing  to  the  weary  spirit  of  royalty  were  the  animated 
graces  of  her  conversation ;  her  skill  was  so  subtle  in  reading  the 
thoughts  of  her  lord,  and  in  selecting  the  most  favorable  times  for 
the  exercise  of  her  power  in  guiding  them,  that  she  preserved  her 
ascendency  in  his  affections  long  after  they  both  had  outlived  the 
season  of  youth,  and  until  the  day  of  her  death,  in  1558.  She  had 
persuaded  Suleiman  to  enfranchise  her,  and  to  make  her  his  wife, 
according  to  the  Mohammedan  ritual.  And  the  honors  paid  by 
him  to  her  memory  proved  the  constancy  and  fer\-or  of  his  passion 
even  after  death.  Her  domed  mausoleum  was  raised  by  him  close 
to  the  magnificent  mosque,   the   Suleimaniye.   which  he  had  con- 

1  She  was  called  by  the  foreign  ambassadors  "  La  Rossa,"  i.  c,  the  Russian 
woman.  This  name  was  subscqnently  euphonized  into  Roxalana,  and  it  is  by  this 
name  bhe  is  most  commonly  known. 


168  TURKEY 

1530-1553 

strticted,  and  which  he  appointed  as  his  own  place  of  sepulture. 
The  tomb  of  the  Sultana  Khurrem  still  attests  the  fatal  fondness 
which  the  Russian  beauty  inspired  in  the  greatest  of  the  Turkish 
Sultans,  and  which  transferred  the  succession  to  the  throne  of 
Othman  from  a  martial  and  accomplished  hero  to  a  ferocious  but 
imbecile  drunkard,  Suleiman  had  a  son,  Prince  Mustapha,  born  to 
him  by  a  Circassian,  who  had  been  the  favorite  sultana  before  the 
Muscovite  slave  Khurrem  enslaved  her  master.  Khurrem  also  bore 
children  to  Suleiman;  and  all  her  address  was  employed  to  secure 
the  succession  to  the  throne  for  her  son,  Prince  Selim.  As  a  neces- 
sary step  toward  that  object,  she  sought  the  destruction  of  Prince 
Mustapha,  who,  as  the  elder  born,  was  regarded  as  the  natural 
heir.  A  daughter  of  the  Sultana  Khurrem  was  married  to  Rustam 
Pasha,  who,  by  her  influence,  was  raised  successively  to  the  dig- 
nities of  Begler  Beg  of  Diarbekir,  and  of  Second  Vizier,  and  finally 
to  the  highest  station  in  the  empire  below  the  throne,  to  the  office 
of  Grand  Vizier.  Rustam  Pasha  employed  all  his  power  and 
influence  as  his  mother-in-law  directed  him ;  and  she  thus  acquired 
a  ready  and  efficient  instrument  for  the  ruin  of  the  devoted  Mus- 
tapha. This  unhappy  prince  was  distinguished  for  personal  grace 
and  activity,  and  for  high  spirit  and  intelligence.  In  the  various 
governments  which  were  intrusted  to  him  by  Suleiman,  as  he  ad- 
vanced toward  manhood,  he  gave  proof  of  such  abilities,  both  civil 
and  military,  that  he  was  looked  on  as  likely  to  surpass  his  father 
in  glory,  and  to  become  the  most  eminent  of  all  the  house  of  Oth- 
man. The  malignant  artifices  of  Khurrem  and  Rustam  awakened 
in  Suleiman's  mind  first  jealousy  and  then  dread  of  his  overpopular 
and  overpraised  son.  As  Suleiman  advanced  in  years,  the  poison- 
ous whisperings  of  the  stepmother  grew  more  and  more  eff^ective. 
The  old  Sultan  was  studiously  reminded  how  his  own  father,  Selim, 
had  dethroned  Bayezid  II.,  and  the  vision  was  kept  before  him  of 
a  renewal  of  that  scene,  of  a  young  and  vigorous  prince,  the 
favorite  of  the  soldiery,  seizing  the  reins  of  empire,  and  of  an  aged 
father  retiring  to  Demotika  and  death.  It  was  at  last,  in  1553, 
when  Suleiman  was  preparing  for  the  second  war  with  Persia,  that 
he  was  fully  wrought  up  to  the  conviction  that  Prince  Mustapha 
was  plotting  against  him,  and  that  it  was  necessary,  before  he 
marched  against  the  foreign  enemy,  to  crush  the  germs  of  treason 
at  home.  In  the  autumn  of  that  year  Suleiman  placed  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  troops  which  had  been  collected  in  Asia  Ivlinor,  and 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  169 

1553-1561 

with  which  it  was  designed  to  invade  Persia.  The  season  was  then 
too  far  advanced  for  such  mihtary  operations,  and  the  army  was 
to  winter  at  Aleppo,  and  to  open  the  campaign  in  the  following 
spring.  But  Suleiman  had  been  persuaded  that  it  was  not  safe  for 
him  to  tarry  at  Constantinople.  He  was  told  by  his  Grand  Vizier 
that  the  soldiers  in  Asia  Minor  were  murmuring  and  plotting 
among  themselves  in  favor  of  Prince  Mustapha,  and  that  the 
prince  encouraged  their  preparations  for  a  military  revolution 
against  the  old  Padishah  Suleiman.  He  repaired,  therefore,  to  the 
army,  and  Khurrem's  son.  Prince  Selim,  at  his  mother's  instigation, 
sought  and  obtained  the  Sultan's  permission  o  accompany  him. 
When  the  army  reached  Eregli  (the  ancient  Heraclea),  Prince 
Mustapha  arrived  at  headquarters,  and  his  tents  were  pitched  with 
great  pomp  in  the  vicinity  of  those  of  the  Sultan.  On  the  next 
day  the  Viziers  paid  their  visits  of  compliment  to  the  prince,  and 
received  presents  of  sumptuous  robes  of  honor.  On  the  following 
morning  Prince  Mustapha  mounted  a  stately  and  richly  caparisoned 
charger  and  was  conducted  by  the  Viziers  and  Janissaries,  amid 
the  loud  acclamations  of  the  soldieiy,  to  the  royal  tent,  w^here  he 
dismounted  in  expectation  of  having  an  audience  with  his  father. 
His  attendants  remained  at  the  entrance  to  the  tent;  Prince  Mus- 
tapha passed  into  the  interior,  but  he  found  there,  not  the  Sultan, 
not  any  of  the  officers  of  the  court,  but  the  seven  Mutes,  the  well- 
known  grim  ministers  of  the  blood-orders  of  the  Imperial  Man- 
Slayer.  They  sprang  upon  him  and  fastened  the  fatal  bowstring 
round  his  throat,  while  he  vainly  called  for  mercy  to  his  father,  who 
was  in  an  inner  apartment  of  the  tent.  According  to  some  accounts, 
Suleiman,  impatient  at  the  long-continued  struggle  between  the 
Mutes  and  his  victim,  looked  in  upon  the  horrible  scene,  and  with 
threatening  arm  and  angry  brow  urged  his  executioners  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  death.  While  the  prince  thus  perished  within 
the  tent,  his  master  of  the  horse,  and  a  favorite  Aga,  who  had 
accompanied  him  to  the  entrance,  were  cut  down  on  the  outside. 
The  tidings  of  this  execution  soon  spread  through  the  camp,  and 
the  troops,  especially  the  Janissaries,  gathered  together  in  tumultu- 
ous indignation  and  called  for  the  punishment  of  the  Grand  Vizier, 
to  whose  intrigues  they  imputed  the  death  of  their  favorite  prince. 
To  appease  their  fury,  the  obnoxious  Rustam  was  deprived  of  his 
office,  and  Ahmed  Pasha,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the 
Hungarian  wars,  was  made  Grand  Vizier  in  his  stead.  But  after  the 


170  TURKEY 

1565 

lapse  of  two  years  the  son-in-law  of  the  all-powerful  Sultana  was 
restored  to  his  former  dignity,  and  Ahmed  Pasha  was  put  to  death 
on  frivolous  charges  of  misconduct  and  disloyalty. 

Besides  the  domestic  sorrows  which  clouded  the  last  years  of 
Suleiman,  his  military  glory  and  imperial  ambition  sustained,  in 
the  year  1565  (the  year  before  his  death),  the  heaviest  blow  and 
most  humiliating  disappointment  that  had  befallen  them  since  the 
memorable  retreat  from  Vienna.  This  second  great  check  was 
caused  by  the  complete  failure  of  the  expedition  against  Malta, 
which  was  led  by  the  admirals  Mustapha  and  Piali,  and  nobly 
and  victoriously  encountered  by  the  Knights  of  St.  John  of  Jeru- 
salem, under  their  heroic  Grand  Master,  La  Vallette.  After  the 
knights  had  been  driven  from  Rhodes  on  Suleiman's  conquest  of 
that  island,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  they  had  established  their 
order  at  Malta,  which,  together  with  the  neighboring  island  of 
Goza,  was  given  to  them  by  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  who  com- 
passionated their  misfortunes,  admired  their  valor,  and  appreciated 
the  importance  of  the  services  which  they  rendered  to  Christendom, 
as  a  barrier  against  the  advancing  power  of  the  Ottomans.  When 
the  knights  took  possession  of  Malta  it  was  little  more  than  a 
shelterless  rock,  but  they  discerned  the  natural  advantages  of  the 
place  and  immediately  commenced  fortifying  the  remarkable  sys- 
tem of  harbors  on  the  southeastern  side  of  the  island,  where  the 
city  of  Malta  now  rears  its  grim  ranges  of  batteries  and  bastions 
beneath  the  British  flag.  The  squadrons  of  the  knights,  issuing 
from  the  Maltese  havens,  cooperated  actively  with  the  fleets  of 
Spain,  and  of  every  foe  of  the  Crescent ;  and  an  incessant  warfare 
was  carried  on  under  the  Maltese  Cross  against  the  Turks,  in  which 
deeds  of  chivalrous  enterprise  were  often  performed,  but  in  which 
a  piratical  love  of  plunder  and  a  brutal  spirit  of  cruelty  too  often 
disgraced  the  Christian  as  well  as  the  Mohammedan  belligerents. 
The  attention  of  Suleiman  was  soon  fixed  on  INIalta,  as  the  new 
nest  of  the  revived  hornets,  who  intercepted  the  commerce  and 
assailed  the  coasts  of  his  empire;  and  at  last  the  capture  by  five 
Maltese  galleys  of  a  rich  Turkish  galleon,  belonging  partly  to  some 
of  the  ladies  of  the  seraglio,  exasperated  the  Sultan,  who  regarded 
it  as  an  insult  to  his  household.  He  was  further  urged  to  an  attack 
upon  the  Order  by  the  Mufti,  who  represented  to  him  how  sacred  a 
duty  it  was  to  rescue  the  numerous  Moslem  slaves  who  were  held  in 
cruel  bondage  by  the  knights.   Nor  can  we  suppose  him  to  have  been 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  171 

1565 

indifferent  to  the  military  and  political  importance  of  the  possession 
of  Malta.  If  the  Ottoman  arms  had  once  been  securely  established 
in  that  island,  it  would  have  served  as  a  basis  for  operations  against 
Sicily  and  South  Italy,  which  hardly  could  have  failed  of  success. 

Accordingly,  a  mighty  armament  was  prepared  in  the  port  of 
Constantinople  during  the  winter  of  1564.  The  troops  amounted 
to  upward  of  30,000,  including  4500  Janissaries,  and  the  fleet 
comprised  181  vessels.  The  Fifth  Vizier,  Mustapha  Pasha,  was 
appointed  Seraskier,  or  commander-in-chief  of  the  expedition,  and 
under  him  was  the  renowned  Piali,  the  hero  of  Djerba.  The  equally 
celebrated  Dragut  was  to  join  them  at  Malta,  with  the  naval  and 
military  forces  of  Tripoli,  and  all  the  stores  and  munitions  of  war 
that  the  skillful  engineers  and  well-stocked  arsenals  of  Constan- 
tinople could  supply  were  shipped  in  liberal  provision  for  a  difficult 
siege  and  long  campaign.  The  fleet  sailed  from  the  Golden  Horn 
on  April  i,  1565.  The  Grand  Vizier,  Ali,  accompanied  the  Seraskier 
and  Capudan  Pasha  to  the  place  of  embarkation,  and  it  was  long 
remembered  that,  at  parting,  he  said  laughingly :  "  There  go  two 
brisk  companions,  of  an  exquisite  relish  for  coffee  and  opium,  on 
a  voyage  of  pleasure  among  the  islands.  Their  fleet  must  be  all 
laden  with  the  Arabian  bean  and  essence  of  henbane." 

The  knights  knew  well  what  a  storm  was  about  to  break  on 
Malta,  and  they  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  improve  the 
defenses  of  their  island  home.  The  old  city,  as  it  then  existed, 
occupied  the  central  of  the  three  spits  of  land  which  project  into 
the  Great  Harbor  on  the  eastern  side.  The  innermost  of  these 
projecting  peninsulas,  called  Isle  de  la  Sangle,  was  also  occupied 
and  fortified.  ]vIount  Sceberras,  the  ridge  of  land  which  runs  out 
to  the  open  sea,  dividing  the  great  eastern  harbor  from  the  western 
harbor,  called  Port  ]\Iuscet,  and  on  which  the  modern  city  of  La 
Valletta  stands,  was  not  at  this  time  built  upon,  except  at  the 
extremity,  where  an  important  castle,  called  the  Fort  of  St.  Elmo, 
had  been  raised  to  command  the  entrances  of  both  harbors.  On 
a  muster  of  the  forces  of  the  defenders  of  Alalta  they  were  found 
to  consist  of  700  knights,  besides  serving  brothers,  and  about  8500 
soldiers,  comprising  the  crews  of  the  galleys,  hired  troops,  and 
the  militia  of  the  island.  Spain  sent  a  small  auxiliary  force,  and 
promised  that  her  Viceroy  of  Sicily  should  bring  ample  succor. 
The  Pope  gave  a  sum  of  10,000  crowns,  but  from  no  other  Chris- 
tian power  did  the  knights  receive  aid.     Their  means  of  safety 


172  TURKEY 

1565 

consisted  in  their  strong  and  well-armed  walls,  their  own  skill  and 
courage,  and  above  all,  the  genius  and  heroism  of  their  Grand  Mas- 
ter, John  de  la  Vallette,  who  had  been  elected,  providentially  for 
Malta,  about  seven  years  before  its  memorable  siege.  When  the 
approach  of  the  Ottoman  armament  was  announced.  La  Vallette 
assembled  his  knights  and  addressed  them:  "A  formidable  enemy 
is  coming  like  a  thunder-storm  upon  us;  and  if  the  banner  of  the 
Cross  must  sink  before  the  misbelievers,  let  us  see  in  this  a  signal 
that  Heaven  demands  from  us  those  lives  which  we  have  solemnly 
devoted  to  its  service.  He  who  dies  in  this  cause  dies  a  happy 
death ;  and  to  render  ourselves  worthy  to  meet  it,  let  us  renew  at  the 
altar  those  vows  which  ought  to  make  us  not  only  fearless,  but 
invincible  in  the  fight."  The  brotherhood  devoutly  obeyed  their 
master's  exhortation.  They  renewed  the  vows  of  their  religious 
knighthood,  and  after  this  solemn  ceremonial,  and  after  partaking 
together  of  the  Holy  Sacrament,  they  swore  to  give  up  all  feuds 
among  themselves,  to  renounce  all  temporal  objects  and  pleasures 
until  their  deliverance  was  effected,  and  to  stand  between  the  Cross 
and  profanation  to  the  last  drop  of  their  blood. 

The  Ottoman  fleet  appeared  off  Malta  on  May  19,  1565.  Piali 
wished  to  wait  for  the  arrival  of  Dragut  before  they  commenced 
operations,  but  the  Seraskier  on  the  next  day  disembarked  the 
troops  and  began  the  attack  upon  St.  Elmo.  The  rocky  nature  of 
the  ground  on  Mount  Sceberras  made  it  impossible  for  the  Turkish 
engineers  to  work  trenches,  and  as  substitutes  they  pushed  forward 
movable  breastworks  of  timber,  which  were  thickly  coated  on  the 
outside  with  clay  and  rushes  kneaded  together.  Five  days  after 
the  commencement  of  the  siege  the  Turkish  sea-captain  Uludj 
Ali  (called  by  the  Christians  Ochial),  who  was  destined  to 
acquire  such  celebrity  in  the  next  reign,  arrived  with  six  galleys 
from  Alexandria;  and  at  last,  on  June  2,  Dragut  appeared  with 
the  squadron  of  Tripoli.  The  old  admiral  disapproved  of  the 
attack  on  St.  Elmo,  saying  that  the  fort  must  have  fallen  of  itself 
when  the  city  was  taken;  but  he  declared  that  as  the  operation  had 
been  commenced,  it  ought  to  be  persevered  with.  Fresh  batteries 
were  placed  by  his  directions  against  the  fort ;  and  in  particular 
he  establislied  one  upon  the  opposite  or  western  side  of  Port  ]\Iuscet 
— on  the  cape  that  still  bears  his  name.  The  Turkish  ships  plied 
the  seaward  defenses  of  the  fort  with  their  artillery;  on  the  land 
side  thirty-six  heavy  guns  battered  it  in  breach,  and  the  balls  of 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  173 

1565 

Dragut's  battery  from  across  Port  Muscet  swept  the  ravelin  with 
a  raking  fire.  The  httle  garrison  did  their  duty  nobly,  and,  aided 
by  occasional  reinforcements  from  the  main  body  of  their  comrades, 
who  held  the  Bourg  and  the  Isle  de  la  Sangle,  they  repulsed  re- 
peated attempts  made  by  the  Turks  to  escalade  their  walls,  and  they 
impeded  the  advance  of  the  enemy's  works  by  bold  and  frequent 
sorties.  The  Viceroy  of  Sicily  had  promised  La  Vallette  to  send 
a  relieving  force  to  the  island  by  the  middle  of  June,  and  every  day 
that  the  defense  of  St.  Elmo  could  be  prolonged  was  considered 
by  the  knights  as  of  vital  importance  for  the  safety  of  the  island. 
When  some  of  the  knights  posted  in  the  fort  represented  to  La 
Vallette  the  ruined  state  of  its  defenses,  and  the  rapidly  increasing 
destructiveness  of  the  Ottoman  fire,  he  told  them  that  they  must  die 
in  discharge  of  their  duty,  and  the  noble  band  of  martyrs  remained 
in  St.  Elmo  to  die  accordingly.  Dragut  ordered  a  general  assault 
on  the  fort  on  June  i6,  1565.  The  landward  walls  had  now  been 
shattered  and  rent,  and  the  Turkish  stormers  advanced  without 
difficulty  through  the  yawning  breaches;  but  behind  these  the 
knights,  arrayed  in  steady  phalanx  and  armed  with  long  pikes, 
formed  a  living  wall  against  which  the  bravest  Turks  rushed  with 
their  scimitars  in  vain.  Meanwhile,  the  Christian  cannon  from 
St.  Angelo  and  St.  Michael,  the  forts  at  the  extremities  of  the 
Bourg  and  the  Isle  de  la  Sangle,  played  with  terrible  effect  on  the 
flanks  of  the  huge  columns  of  the  assailants.  After  six  hours'  con- 
flict the  Ottomans  retreated,  leaving  two  thousand  of  their  comrades 
slain. 

Dragut  himself  received  his  death-wound  during  the  assault. 
A  cannon-ball  from  the  Castle  of  St.  Angelo  splintered  a  rock  near 
which  he  was  standing,  and  the  fragments  of  stone  struck  the  old 
seaman's  head.  The  Seraskier,  with  whom  he  had  been  conversing 
respecting  the  construction  of  a  new  battery  to  reply  to  St.  Angelo, 
ordered  a  cloak  to  be  flung  over  the  corpse,  and  remained  calmly  on 
the  spot  while  he  completed  the  requisite  instructions  to  the  engi- 
neers. Seven  days  afterward  the  death  of  Dragut  was  avenged  by 
the  fall  of  St.  Elmo,  after  a  furious  and  long-continued  assault,  in 
which  every  man  of  the  defenders  "  was  slain  in  valiant  fight." 
In  the  siege  of  this  outwork  300  knights  and  1300  soldiers  of  the 
Order  and  8000  of  the  Turks  perished.  Mustapha  Pasha,  when 
he  looked  from  the  ruins  of  tin's  small  castle  across  to  the  massive 
towers  of  the  Bourg,  which  was  now  to  be  attacked,  could  not  help 


174  TURKEY 

1565 

exclaitningf,  "  If  the  child  has  cost  us  so  much,  what  shall  we  have 
to  pay  for  the  father?  "    He  sent  a  Christian  slave  to  summon  the 
Grand  Master  to  surrender.    La  Vallette  led  the  messenger  round 
the  lofty  ramparts,  and  pointing  down  to  the  deep  ditches  beneath 
them,  he  said,  "  Tell  the  Seraskier  that  this  is  the  only  land  that  I 
can  give  him.  Let  him  and  his  Janissaries  come  and  take  posses- 
sion."    Mustapha  commenced  the  attack  with  ardor,  and  both  the 
Bourg  and  the  Isle  de  la  Sangle  were  closely  invested  and  cannon- 
aded from  the  mainland,  while  also  a  row  of  formidable  Turkish 
batteries  thundered  on  them  from  St.  Elmo  and  IMount  Sceberras. 
This  great  siege  was  prolonged  until   September   1 1   by  the 
obstinate   vehemence   of   the   besiegers    and   the   truly   chivalrous 
gallantry  of  the  besieged.    During  the  continuance  of  the  operations 
the  Turks  were  reinforced  by  a  flotilla  from  Algiers,  commanded  by 
the  Begler  Beg  Hassan,  the  son  of  the  great  Barbarossa  and  son-in- 
law  of  Dragut.     Hassan  demanded  leave  to  sustain  the  honor  of 
these  illustrious  names  by  leading  an  assault  upon  the  Isle  de  la 
Sangle.     The  Seraskier  placed  5000  men  at  his  disposal,  and  with 
these  Hassan  attacked  the  works  from  the  mainland,  while  Can- 
delissa,  a  Greek  renegade,  who  had  grown  gray  in  piracy  and  war, 
led  the  Algerine  galleys  to  an  attack  on  the  inner  part  of  the  harbor. 
Hassan  brought  back  only  500  men  out  of  his   5000,   nor  was 
Candelissa  more  successful.     No  less  than  ten  general  assaults  were 
made  and  repulsed  before  the  siege  was  raised;  and  innumerable 
minor  engagements  took  place,  in  which  each  side  showed  such 
valor  as  to  earn  its  enemy's  praise,  and  each  side  also  unhappily 
too  often  stained  its  glory  by  the  exhibition  of  ferocious  cruelty. 
In  one  of  these  encounters    tlie  Seraskier  had  sent  a  band  of  able 
swimmers  across  part  of  the  harbor  with  axes  to  destroy  a  stockade 
which  the  knights  had  erected.     La  Vallette  opposed  tliese  assail- 
ants by  calling  for  volunteer  swimmers  from  among  the  ^Maltese. 
The  islanders  came  forward  readily  for  this  service,  and,  stripping 
themselves  naked,  and  armed  only  with  short  swords,  a  band  of 
them  swam  to  tlie  stockade,  and  after  a  short  but  desperate  struggle 
in  the  water   tliey  completely  routed  the  Turkish  hatchet-men    and 
saved  the  wcjrks.   The  long  repetition  of  defeat  and  bootless  carnage 
by  degrees  wore  out  the  energies  of  the  Turks.     And  at  last,  at  the 
beginning  of  September,  the  news  arrived  that  the  long-expected 
fleet  of  tlie  Sicilian  Viceroy  was  on  the  sea.     The  succors  thus 
tardily  sent  to  La  Vallette  and  his  brave  comrades  amounted  to  less 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  175 

1566 

than  8000  men,  but  rumor  magnified  their  numbers,  and  the  weary 
and  dispirited  besiegers  on  September  11  abandoned  their  heavy 
ordnance  and  left  the  island,  which  had  been  crimsoned  with  so 
much  slaughter  and  had  been  made  the  theater  of  such  unrivaled 
heroism.  This  memorable  siege  is  said  to  have  cost  the  lives  of 
25,000  Turks,  and  of  5000  of  the  brave  defenders.  So  reduced,  in- 
deed, was  the  garrison  at  the  time  of  its  rescue  that  when  they 
marched  out  to  take  possession  of  the  guns  which  the  Turks 
had  abandoned.  La  Vallette  could  only  muster  600  men  fit  for 
service. 

At  the  time  when  the  tidings  that  the  siege  of  Alalta  was  raised 
reached  Constantinople,  Suleiman  was  preparing  for  a  new  struggle 
with  Austria.  The  disputes  between  the  rival  parties  in  Hungary 
had  again  brought  on  hostilities.  Maximilian  II.  (who  had  suc- 
ceeded Ferdinand)  had  in  person  attacked  and  captured  Tokay 
and  Serencz,  and  the  Turkish  Pasha,  Mustapha  Sokolli,  had  in- 
vaded Croatia.  Suleiman  determined  to  conduct  the  campaign 
against  the  young  German  emperor  in  person;  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  this  Austrian  war  saved  the  Knights  of  Malta 
from  a  renewed  attack  in  1566,  which  must,  in  all  human  proba- 
bility, have  been  fatal.  Suleiman  was  now  seventy-six  years  old, 
and  so  enfeebled  by  age  and  illness  that  he  was  no  longer  able  to 
sit  on  horseback,  but  was  borne  in  a  litter  at  the  head  of  his  army, 
which  commenced  its  march  from  Constantinople  to  Hungary  on 
May  I,  1566.  Before  he  left  his  capital  for  the  last  time  Suleiman 
had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  great  aqueducts  completed,  which 
had  been  built  by  his  orders  for  the  supply  of  the  city. 

The  Sultan  arrived  at  Semi  in,  in  Hungary,  on  June  27,  and 
received  the  solemn  homage  of  young  Sigismund  Zapolya,  the  titu- 
lar King  of  Hungary  and  Transylvania  under  Ottoman  protection. 
Suleiman  especially  desired  to  capture  in  this  campaign  the  two 
strong  places  of  Erlau  and  Sziget,  which  had  on  former  occasions 
baffled  the  attacks  of  the  Turks.  A  bold  exploit  of  Count  Zriny,  the 
Governor  of  Sziget,  who  surprised  and  cut  off  a  detachment  of 
Bosnian  troops  while  on  their  marcli  to  reinforce  the  Sultan's  army, 
determined  Suleiman  to  make  Sziget  the  first  object  of  his  arms ;  and 
on  August  5,  the  Ottoman  forces  encamped  round  that  city.  It  was 
destined  to  be  the  death-place  of  both  the  Turkish  sovereign  and  the 
Christian  chief.  Zriny  himself  burned  the  lower,  or  new  town,  as 
indefensible,  but  great  reliance  was  placed  on  the  strength  of  the 


176  TURKEY 

1566 

citadel,  which  was  protected  by  a  deep  fen  that  lay  between  it  and  the 
old  or  upper  town.  The  Turks  carried  the  town  in  five  days,  though 
not  without  severe  fighting  and  heavy  loss,  and  Zriny  and  his  garri- 
son of  3200  men  then  retired  to  the  citadel,  where  they  hoisted  the 
black  flag,  and  took  an  oath  never  to  surrender,  but  to  fight  to  the 
last  man  and  the  last  gasp.  The  Turkish  engineers  formed  cause- 
ways across  the  marsh,  and  they  established  breastworks  near  the 
walls  where  the  Janissaries  were  posted,  who  kept  down  the  fire  of 
the  artillery  of  the  besieged  by  an  incessant  discharge  of  musketry 
upon  the  embrasures,  and  at  every  living  object  that  appeared 
above  the  parapet.  The  heavy  cannons  of  the  Ottomans  were 
placed  in  battery,  and  the  walls  began  to  crumble  beneath  their 
salvos.  Suleiman  was  impatient  of  the  delay  which  the  resistance 
of  so  small  a  place  as  this  citadel  now  caused  him,  and  he  sum- 
moned Zriny  to  surrender,  and  sought  to  win  him  over  to  the  Otto- 
man service  by  offering  to  make  him  ruler  of  all  Croatia.  Zriny, 
whom  his  countr3'men  have  not  unworthily  named  the  Leonidas  of 
Hungary,  was  resolute  to  die  in  defense  of  his  post,  and  he  inspired 
all  his  men  with  his  own  spirit  of  unflinching  courage.  Three  as- 
saults were  given  by  the  Turks  in  August  and  September,  all  of 
which  Zriny  repelled  with  great  loss  to  the  besiegers.  The  Turkish 
engineers  now  ran  a  mine  under  the  principal  bastion,  and  the  at- 
tacking columns  were  kept  back  until  the  effect  of  the  explosion 
could  be  ascertained.  The  mine  was  fired  early  in  the  morning  of 
September  5,  and  the  bright  streak  of  fire  that  shot  up  into  the 
sky  from  the  shattered  bastion  might  have  been  thought  to  be  the 
death-light  of  the  great  Sultan,  who  had  died  in  his  tent  during 
the  preceding  night.  A  few  hours  before  his  death  he  had  written 
to  his  Grand  Vizier  complaining  that  "  the  drum  of  victory  had 
not  yet  beat."  He  was  not  destined  to  witness  Sziget's  fall, 
though  his  army  continued  the  siege  as  if  by  his  command,  and  all 
except  his  Grand  Vizier,  Sokolli,  believed  that  he  still  lived  and 
reigned.  Sokolli  is  said  to  have  killed  the  Sultan's  physicians  lest 
the  important  secret  should  transpire,  and  to  have  issued  orders  in 
Suleiman's  name,  while  the  messengers  conveyed  the  dispatches  to 
Prince  Selim  which  summoned  him  to  the  throne. 

The  fire  of  the  Turkish  batteries  was  continued  for  four  days 
after  the  explosion  of  the  mine,  until  all  the  exterior  defenses  of 
the  citadel  were  destroyed,  and  of  the  inner  works  only  a  single 
tower  was  left  standing.     In  that  tower  were  Zriny  and  600  of  his 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  177 

1566 

men;  the  rest  of  the  garrison  had  perished.  On  September  8, 
the  Janissaries  advanced  in  a  dense  cokimn  along  a  narrow  bridge 
that  led  to  this  last  shelter  of  the  defenders,  and  Zriny,  feel- 
ing" that  his  hour  was  come,  resolved  to  anticipate  the  charge.  The 
gallant  Magyar  prepared  himself  for  death  as  for  a  marriage  feast. 
He  wore  his  most  splendid  apparel,  and  a  diamond  of  high  price 
glittered  in  the  clasp  of  his  crest  of  the  heron's  plumes.  He 
fastened  to  his  girdle  a  purse  containing  the  keys  of  the  tower,  and 
a  hundred  ducats  carefully  chosen  of  Hungarian  coinage.  "  The 
man  who  lays  me  out,"  he  said,  "  shall  not  complain  that  he  found 
nothing  on  me  for  his  trouble.  These  keys  I  keep  while  this  arm 
can  move.  When  it  is  stiff,  let  him  who  pleases  take  both  keys  and 
ducats.  But  I  have  sworn  never  to  be  the  living  finger-post  of 
Turkish  scorn."  Then  from  among  four  richly  ornamented  sabers, 
which  had  been  presented  to  him  at  some  of  the  most  brilliant 
epochs  of  his  military  career,  he  chose  the  oldest  one.  ''  With  this 
good  sword,"  he  exclaimed,  "  gained  I  my  first  honors,  and  with 
this  will  I  pass  forth  to  hear  my  doom  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
God."  He  then,  with  the  banner  of  the  empire  borne  before  him 
by  his  standard-bearer,  went  down  into  the  court  of  the  tower, 
where  his  6oo  were  drawn  up  in  readiness  to  die  with  him.  He 
addressed  them  in  a  few  words  of  encouragement,  which  he  ended 
by  thrice  invoking  the  name  of  Jesus.  The  Turks  were  now  close 
to  the  tower  gate.  Zriny  had  caused  a  large  mortar  to  be  brought 
down  and  placed  in  tlie  doorway,  and  trained  point-blank  against 
the  entrance.  He  had  loaded  this  with  broken  iron  and  musket 
balls.  At  the  instant  when  the  foremost  Janissary  raised  his  axe  to 
break  in  the  door  it  was  thrown  open.  Zriny  fired  the  mortar ;  the 
deadly  shower  poured  through  the  mass  of  the  assailants,  destroy- 
ing hundreds  of  them  in  an  instant,  and  amid  the  smoke,  the  din, 
and  the  terror  of  this  unexpected  carnage,  Zriny  sprang  forth 
sword  in  hand  against  the  Turks,  followed  by  his  devoted  troop. 
There  was  not  one  of  those  6oo  Magv^ar  sabers  but  drank  its  fill  on 
that  day  of  self-immolation,  before  the  gallant  men  who  wielded 
them  were  overpowered.  Zriny  met  the  death  he  sought,  from  two 
musket-balls  through  the  body  and  an  arrow  wound  in  the  head. 
The  Ottomans  thrice  raised  the  shout  of  "  Allah !  "  when  they  saw 
him  fall,  and  they  then  poured  into  the  citadel,  which  they  fired 
and  began  to  plunder;  but  Zriny.  even  after  death,  smote  his  foes. 
He  had  caused  all  his  remaining  stores  of  powder  to  be  placed  be- 


178  TURKEY 

1566 

neath  the  tower,  and,  according  to  some  accounts,  a  slow  match 
was  applied  to  it  by  his  orders  immediately  before  the  Magyars 
made  their  sally.  Either  from  this,  or  from  the  flames  which  the 
Turks  had  themselves  kindled,  the  magazine  exploded  while  the 
tower  was  filled  with  Ottoman  soldiery,  and  together  with  the  last 
battlements  of  Sziget  3000  of  its  destroyers  were  destroyed. 

Suleiman  the  Conqueror  lay  stark  in  his  tent  before  the  reek- 
ing and  smoldering  ruins.  The  drum  of  victory  beat  unheeded  by 
him  who  had  so  longed  for  its  sound.  He  was  insensible  to  all  the 
roar  of  the  assault,  and  to  the  "  deadly  earthshock  "  of  the  fired 
magazine  of  Sziget.  Nor  could  the  tidings  which  now  reached  the 
camp  of  the  surrender  of  the  city  of  Gyula  to  Pertev  Pasha  "  soothe 
the  dull  cold  ear  of  death,"  The  secret  of  the  decease  of  the  Sultan 
was  long  well  guarded.  For  seven  weeks  the  great  Turkish  army  of 
150,000  soldiers  went  and  came  and  fought,  and  took  towns  and  cities 
in  the  name  of  the  dead  man.  The  Vizier  Sokolli  had  caused  the  body 
to  be  partly  embalmed  before  the  royal  tent  was  removed  from  before 
Sziget,  and  when  the  camp  was  struck  the  corpse  was  placed  in  the 
covered  litter  in  which  Suleiman  had  traveled  during  the  campaign, 
and  which  was  now  borne  along  among  the  troops,  surrounded  by 
the  customary  guards,  and  with  all  the  ceremonies  and  homage 
which  had  been  shown  to  the  living  monarch.  Sokolli  and  the  other 
high  officials,  who  knew  the  truth,  after  the  siege  and  capture  of 
Babocsa,  and  some  other  operations  which  employed  the  attention 
of  the  troops,  gradually  drew  them  toward  the  Turkish  frontier. 
Suleiman's  signature  was  adroitly  counterfeited,  written  orders  were 
issued  in  his  name,  and  the  report  was  sedulously  spread  among 
the  soldiers  that  a  severe  attack  of  gout  prevented  the  Sultan  from 
appearing  in  public.  At  last  Sokolli  received  intelligence  that  Prince 
Selim  had  been  enthroned  at  Constantinople,  and  he  then  took 
measures  for  revealing  to  the  soldiery  the  death  of  the  great  Padi- 
shah. On  October  24,  1566.  the  army  was  about  four  marches  dis- 
tant from  Belgrade,  and  had  halted  for  the  night  in  the  outskirts 
of  a  forest,  Sokolli  sent  for  the  readers  of  the  Koran  who  accom- 
panied the  troops,  and  ordered  them  to  assemble  round  the  Sultan's 
litter  in  the  night,  and  at  tlie  fourth  hour  before  daybreak  (the  hour 
at  which  Suleiman  had  expired  forty-eight  days  before),  to  read  the 
appointed  service  for  the  dead  from  the  Koran,  and  call  upon  the 
name  of  God.  At  the  chosen  time,  amid  the  stillness  of  the  night, 
the  army  was  roused  from  sleep  by  the  loud  clear  voices  of  the 


LAST     YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  179 

1566 

Muezzins,  that  rose  in  solemn  chant  from  around  the  royal  tent, 
and  were  echoed  back  from  the  sepulchral  gloom  of  the  forest. 
Those  who  stood  on  the  right  of  the  corpse  called  aloud,  "  All  do- 
minion perishes,  and  the  last  hour  awaits  all  mankind !  "  Those 
on  the  left  answered,  "  The  everliving  God  alone  is  untouched  by 
time  or  death.''  The  soldiers,  who  heard  the  well-known  announce- 
ment of  death,  gathered  together  in  tumultuous  groups,  with  wild 
cries  of  lamentation.  When  the  day  began  to  break,  the  Grand 
Vizier  went  through  the  camp  addressing  the  assemblages  of  troops 
and  exhorting  them  to  resume  their  ranks  and  march.  He  told  them 
how  much  the  Padishah,  who  was  now  at  rest  and  in  the  bosom 
of  God,  had  done  for  Islam,  and  how  he  had  been  the  soldier's 
friend :  and  he  exhorted  them  to  show  their  respect  for  his  memory 
not  by  lamentations,  which  should  be  left  to  the  priests,  but  by  loyal 
obedience  to  his  son,  the  glorious  Sultan  Selim  Khan,  who  now  was 
reigning  in  his  stead.  Soothed  by  these  addresses,  and  the  promise 
of  a  liberal  donative  from  the  new  Sultan,  the  army  returned  to 
military  order  and  escorted  the  remains  of  their  monarch  and  general 
back  to  Belgrade.  Suleiman's  body  was  finally  deposited  in  the 
great  mosque  at  Constantinople,  the  Suleimaniye,  which  is  the  archi- 
tectural glory  of  his  reign. 

Sultan  Suleiman  L  left  to  his  successors  an  empire  to  the  ex- 
tent of  which  few  important  permanent  additi(jns  were  ever  made, 
except  the  islands  of  Cyprus  and  Candia,  and  which  under  no  sub- 
sequent Sultan  maintained  or  recovered  the  wealth,  pcnver,  and 
prosperity  which  it  enjoyed  under  the  great  lawgiver  of  the  house 
of  Othman.  The  Turkish  dominions  in  his  time  comprised  all  the 
most  celebrated  cities  of  biblical  and  classical  history,  exce])t  Rome, 
Syracuse,  and  Persepolis.  The  sites  of  Carthage,  Alemphis,  T}-re. 
Nineveh,  Babylon,  and  Palmyra  were  Ottoman  ground;  and  the 
cities  of  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  Damascus.  Smyrna,  Nice,  Prusa, 
Athens,  Philippi,  and  Adrianople,  besides  many  of  later  but  scarcely 
interior  celebrity,  such  as  Algiers.  Cairo.  ]\[ecca,  Medina,  Bassora, 
Bagdad,  and  Belgrade,  obeyed  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople.  The 
Nile,  the  Jordan,  the  O routes,  the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  the 
Don,  the  Dnieper,  the  Danube,  the  Ilebrus,  and  the  Pyssus 
rolled  their  waters  '*  within  the  shadow  of  the  Horsetails."  The 
eastern  recess  of  the  ^^lediterranean,  the  Propontis,  the  Palus 
Masotis,  the  Euxine.  and  the  Red  Sea  were  Turkish  lakes.  The 
Ottoman  Crescent  touched  the  Atlas  and  the  Caucasus;  it  was  su- 


180  TURKEY 

1566 

preme  over  Athos,  Sinai,  Ararat,  Mount  Carmel,  Mount  Taurus, 
Ida,  Olympus,  Pelion,  Hoemus,  the  Carpathian  and  the  Acroceraun- 
ian  heights.  An  empire  of  more  than  a  million  and  a  half 
square  miles,  embracing-  many  of  the  richest  and  most  beauti- 
ful regions  of  the  world,  had  been  acquired  by  the  descendants  of 
Ertoghrul,  in  three  centuries  from  the  time  when  their  forefather 
wandered  a  homeless  adventurer  at  the  head  of  less  than  five 
hundred  fighting  men. 

Suleiman  divided  this  empire  into  twenty-one  governments, 
which  were  again  subdivided  into  250  Sanjaks.  The  governments 
were:  i,  Rumelia,  under  which  term  were  then  comprised  all 
the.  Ottoman  continental  possessions  in  Europe  south  of  the  Dan- 
ube: these  included  Ancient  Greece,  Macedonia,  Thrace,  Epirus, 
Illyria,  Dalmatia,  and  Mcesia.  2.  The  islands  of  the  Archipelago : 
this  government  was  vested  in  the  Capudan  Pasha.  3.  Algiers 
and  its  territory.  4.  Tripoli  in  Africa.  5.  Ofen,  comprising  the 
conquered  portions  of  western  Hungary.  6.  Temeswar,  combin- 
ing the  Bannat,  Transylvania,  and  the  eastern  part  of  Hungary. 
7.  Anatolia,  a  title  commonly  given  to  the  w^iole  of  Asia  Minor, 
but  here  applied  to  the  northwestern  part  of  the  peninsula,  which 
includes  the  ancient  Paphlagonia,  Bithynia,  Mysia,  Lydia,  Caria, 
Lycia,  Pisidia,  and  the  greater  part  of  Phrygia  and  Galatia.  8. 
Karaman,  which  contains  the  residue  of  the  last-mentioned  ancient 
countries,  and  also  Lycaonia,  Cilicia,  and  the  larger  part  of  Cappa- 
docia.  9.  Rum,  called  also  the  government  of  Sivas,  and  at 
times  the  government  of  Amasia:  it  comprehended  part  of  Cappa- 
docia  and  nearly  the  whole  of  the  ancient  Pontus  that  lay  in 
Asia  Minor.  10.  Sulkadr:  this  embraced  the  cities  of  ]\Ialatea, 
Samosata,  Elbostan,  and  the  neighboring  districts,  and  the  im- 
portant passes  of  the  eastern  ridges  of  Mount  Taurus.  11.  Trebi- 
zond :  the  governor  of  this  city  commanded  the  coasts  round  the 
southeastern  extremity  of  the  Black  Sea.  12.  Diarbekir.  13. 
Van :  these  two  governments  included  the  greater  part  of  Armenia 
and  Kurdistan.  14.  Aleppo.  15.  Damascus:  these  two  embraced 
Syria  and  Palestine.  16.  Egypt.  17.  Mecca  and  Medina,  and  the 
country  of  Arabia  Petrrea.  18.  Yemen  and  Aden:  this  government 
extended  over  Ara1)ia  Felix  and  a  considerable  tract  along  the  coast 
of  the  Persian  Gulf  and  northwestern  India.  19.  Bagdad.  20. 
Mosul.  21.  Bassora :  these  three  last  contained  the  conquests 
which  Selim  and  Suleiman  had  made  from  the  Persians  in  Mesopo- 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  181 

1520-1566 

tamia  and  the  adjacent  southern  regions:  the  Tigris  and  the 
Euphrates  (after  its  confluence  with  the  other  river)  formed 
their  eastern  hmit,  and  at  the  same  time  were  the  boundaries 
between  the  Turkish  and  the  Persian  dominions. 

Besides  the  countries  that  were  portioned  out  in  these  twenty- 
one  governments,  the  Suhan  was  also  sovereign  over  the  vassal 
states  of  Wallachia,  Moldavia,  Ragusa,  and  Crim  Tartary.  They 
paid  him  tribute,  which  in  the  cases  of  the  two  former  were  con- 
siderable; and  the  last-named  feudatories  of  the  Porte,  the  Crim 
Tartars,  furnished  large  and  valuable  contingents  to  the  Turkish 
armies.  It  is  not  easy  to  define  the  territory  then  belonging  to  the 
vassal  khans  of  the  Crimea  beyond  that  peninsula.  They  and  their 
kinsman,  the  Tartar  khans  of  Astrakhan,  were  chiefs  of  numerous 
and  martial  tribes  that  roved  amid  the  steppes  to  the  north  of  the 
Euxine  and  round  the  Sea  of  Azov ;  but  the  fluctuation  of  their 
almost  perpetual  wars  with  the  Cossacks,  the  Muscovites,  and  each 
other  prevents  the  fixing  of  any  territorial  boundaries  in  those 
regions  for  any  specified  epoch. 

At  least  twenty  different  races  of  mankind  inhabited  the  vast 
realms  ruled  by  the  great  Suleiman.  The  Ottomans  themselves, 
who  are  now  calculated  to  amount  to  about  ten  to  eleven  millions, 
are  believed  to  have  declined  in  number  during  the  last  three  cen- 
turies ;  and  we  may  take  fifteen  millions  as  an  approximate  enumera- 
tion of  them  in  the  sixteenth  century,  distributed  then,  as  now,  very 
unequally  over  the  empire.  Asia  containing  four-fifths  of  them,  and 
Asia  Minor  being  especially  their  chosen  home.  Three  millions  of 
Greeks  (the  name  and  the  language  continue,  whatever  we  may 
think  as  to  the  predominance  of  the  Slavonic  over  the  Hellenic  ele- 
ment in  the  modern  Greek  nation)  dwelt  in  the  southern  portion 
of  European  Turkey;  a  million  more  were  in  Asia  Minor.  The 
Armenian  race,  little  extended  in  Europe,  was  numerous  in  Asia, 
and  may  have  formerly  amounted,  as  now,  to  between  two  and  three 
millions.  The  Slavic  part  of  the  population  was  the  largest.  Bul- 
garia, Servia,  Bosnia,  Alontenegro,  the  Herzegovine,  were  chiefly 
peopled  jjy  Slavs,  who  -were  also  numerous  in  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia,  and  there  were  many  thousands  of  them  in  Transylvania 
and  AHjania.  They  may  be  estimated  at  six  millions  and  a  half  at 
the  epoch  which  we  are  particularly  examining.  The  race  called 
kumanians,  and  supposed  to  have  sprung  from  the  Roman  con- 
querors of  the  Dacians,  and  from  the  conquered  Dacians  themselves, 


182  TURK  K  Y 

1520-1566 

dwelt  principally  in  Wallachia  and  Moldavia;  their  number  may 
have  been  four  millions.  The  Albanians,  who  term  themselves 
Skipetars,  and  are  termed  by  the  Turks  Arnauts,  were  and  are  a 
nation  of  mountaineers — bold,  hardy,  and  unscrupulous,  fond  of 
robbery  at  home  and  warfare  abroad.  Their  number  is  now  esti- 
mated at  one  million  and  a  half,  and  is  likely  to  have  varied  but 
little.  The  Tartar  race  formed  the  population  of  the  Dobrudsha 
and  of  the  Crimea,  and  the  countries  round  the  coast  of  the  conti- 
nent connected  with  it.  Judging  from  the  amount  of  soldiery  sup- 
plied by  the  Crim  Tartars  to  the  Ottoman  armies,  and  other 
circumstances,  a  million  and  a  half  would  probably  represent  their 
number  in  the  reign  of  Suleiman.  The  Arabic  race  was  extensively 
spread  through  Syria,  Arabia,  Egypt,  and  the  whole  North  African 
coast,  and  the  Arabian  subjects  of  Suleiman  must  have  been  nearly 
six  millions.  The  Maronites,  the  Chaldeans,  and  the  Druses  of 
Syria  w^ere  together  under  a  million.  The  Kurds,  a  race  of  close 
affinity  to  the  Persians,  can  be  only  guessed  to  have  numbered  the 
like  amount,  and  the  Turkomans  of  Diarbekir  and  the  neighborhood 
cannot  be  numbered  at  more  than  100,000.  We  have  yet  to  add  the 
]\Iagyars  of  that  part  of  Hungary  which  obeyed  the  Sultan ;  the 
Germans  of  Transylvania,  the  Berbers  of  Algeria  and  the  other 
African  provinces,  the  Copts  of  Egypt,  the  Jews,  the  Tsiganes  (who 
were  and  are  numerous  in  Moldavia),  and  the  remnants  of  the 
Mamelukes.  In  speaking  of  an  age  and  of  nations  in  which  the 
numbering  of  the  people  was  not  practiced,  it  is  vain  to  take  a  retro- 
spective census  with  any  pretensions  to  minute  accuracy,  but  prob- 
ably our  calculation  would  not  be  very  erroneous  if  we  considered 
that  from  forty-fi\e  to  fifty  millions  of  subjects  obeyed  the  com- 
mands and  were  guided  by  the  laws  of  Suleiman  Kanuni. 

Of  tlie  various  races  which  we  have  enumerated,  the  Ottomans, 
the  Tartars,  tlie  Arabs,  the  Kurds,  the  Turkomans,  the  Mamelukes, 
and  the  Berbers  held  the  Mohammedan  creed,  which  had  been 
adopted  also  by  large  numbers  of  the  Bosnians,  Bulgarians,  and 
Albanians.  The  rest,  except  the  Jews  and  the  Tsiganes,  belonged 
to  different  branches  of  the  Christian  religion,  the  adherents  of  the 
Greek  Churcli  lieing  by  far  the  most  numerous. 

The  regular  military  force  of  the  empire  in  the  year  of  the 
capture  of  Sziget,  the  sunset  glory  of  Suleiman's  reign,  was  double 
that  wliich  he  found  at  his  accession.  He  raised  the  number  of  the 
Janissaries  to  20,000.  and  the  whole  paid  and  permanent  army. 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  183 

1520-1566 

including  the  royal  horseguards  and  other  troops,  amounted  under 
him  to  48,000  men.  Suleiman  bestowed  the  greatest  attention  upon 
his  Janissaries.  He  formed  from  among  them  a  corps  of  invalids 
into  which  only  veteran  soldiers  of  high  merit,  who  had  grown  gray 
in  the  service  or  had  been  disabled  by  wounds,  were  admitted. 
Suleiman  also  complimented  these  formidable  troops  (and  his  suc- 
cessors continued  the  custom)  by  being  himself  nominally  enrolled 
in  their  first  regiment,  and  coming  among  them  at  the  pay  day,  and 
receiving  a  soldier's  pay  from  the  colonel.  He  honored  another 
distinguished  regiment  of  the  Janissaries  by  accepting  a  cup  of 
sherbet  from  their  commander  when  he  inspected  the  barrack.  This 
incident  also  gave  rise  to  a  custom  for  each  Sultan,  on  his  accession, 
to  receive  a  cup  of  sherbet  from  the  aga  or  commander-in-chief  of 
the  Janissaries,  which  he  returned  to  that  warlike  functionary  with 
the  words  (significant  of  Ottoman  pride  and  ambition)  "We  shall 
see  each  other  again  at  the  Red  Apple.''  the  name  which  the  Turks 
commonly  gi\e  to  the  city  of  Rome.  The  number  of  the  feudatory 
troops,  and  the  irregular  levies,  at  the  time  of  the  campaign  of 
Sziget,  exceeded  200,000.  The  park  of  artillery  contained  300 
cannon  and  the  fleet  amounted  to  300  sail. 

Notwithstanding  the  improvement  in  the  armies  of  Western 
Christendom,  to  which  we  have  referred  when  speaking  of  the 
epoch  of  the  accession  of  Suleiman,  the  Ottoman  troops  were  still 
far  superior  to  them  in  discipline  and  in  general  equipment.  We 
have  already  mentioned  the  preeminence  of  the  Turks  of  that  age 
in  the  numerical  force  and  efficiency  of  their  artillery,  and  the  same 
remark  applies  to  their  skill  in  fortification  and  in  all  the  branches 
of  military  engineering.  The  difference  between  the  care  that  was 
paid  to  the  physical  and  moral  well-being  of  Suleiman's  troops  and 
the  neglect  of  "  the  miserable  fate  of  the  poor  soldier  "  in  his  rivals' 
camps,  is  still  more  striking.  There  are  some  well-known  passages 
in  the  writings  of  Busbequius,  the  Austrian  ambassador  at  the  Otto- 
man court,  who  accompanied  the  Turkish  forces  in  some  of  their 
expeditions,  in  which  he  contrasts  the  cleanliness  and  the  good  or- 
der at  a  Turkish  camp,  the  absence  of  all  gambling  and  the  sobriet}' 
and  temperance  of  the  men,  with  the  tumult,  the  drunkenness,  the 
license,  the  brawling,  and  the  offensive  pollution  that  reeked  in  and 
around  Christian  tents  in  that  age.  It  were  difficult,  even  for  the 
most  experienced  commissary-general  of  modern  times,  to  suggest 
im[)ruvements  on  the  arrangements  and  preparations  for  the  good 


184  TURKEY 

1520-1566 

condition  and  comfort  of  the  Ottoman  soldiers  that  may  be  read  of 
in  the  narratives  of  Suleiman's  campaigns.  We  may  mention  as 
one  of  many  beneficial  regulations  the  establishment  of  a  corps  of 
Sakkas,  or  water-carriers,  who  attended  in  the  field  and  on  the 
march  to  supply  water  to  the  weary  and  wounded  soldiers.  Com- 
pare this  with  the  condition  of  the  Black  Bands  who  followed 
Bourbon  under  the  banner  of  the  Emperor  Charles. 

An  ample  revenue  judiciously  collected,  and  prudently  though 
liberally  employed,  was  one  decisive  advantage  which  Suleiman 
possessed  over  his  contemporary  monarchs.  The  crown  lands  of 
the  Sultan  at  that  time  produced  the  large  sum  of  five  million  of 
ducats.  The  tithe  or  land-tax,  the  capitation  tax  on  the  rayas,  the 
customs,  and  the  other  regular  taxes  raised  this  to  between  seven 
and  eight  millions.  The  burden  of  taxation  on  the  subject 
was  light,  and  it  was  only  twice  in  his  reign  that  Suleiman 
levied  an  additional  impost.  The  necessity  caused  by  the  sieges  of 
Belgrade  and  Rhodes,  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  and  the  cost 
of  armaments  in  the  year  of  the  battle  of  Mohacs,  compelled  him 
to  impose  a  poll-tax  on  all  his  subjects,  without  distinction  of  creed 
or  fortune.  But  the  amount  was  small  on  each  occasion,  and  never 
was  a  similar  measure  again  necessary.  The  victorious  campaigns 
of  the  Sultan  were  soon  made  to  reimburse  their  outlays,  and  still 
further  to  enrich  the  Porte.  Large  contributions  were  drawn  from 
Hungary  and  Transylvania ;  and  Ragusa,  Moldavia,  and  Wallachia 
poured  tribute  into  the  treasury  of  the  Porte.  Another  less  glorious 
source  of  revenue  was  found  in  the  confiscated  goods  of  the  numer- 
ous high  officers  of  state  who  were  executed  during  this  reign.  By 
invariable  usage  the  property  of  those  who  die  thus  is  forfeited  to 
the  Crown ;  and  the  riches  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Ibrahim  and  other 
unhappy  statesmen  of  this  age  wxre  no  unimportant  accessions  to 
the  ways  and  means  of  the  years  in  which  they  perished. 

We  examined  the  general  principles  of  the  Ottoman  govern- 
ment when  reviewing  the  institutes  of  Mohammed  the  Conqueror. 
Every  branch  of  the  administration  of  the  empire  received  improve- 
ment from  Suleiman  Kanuni,  who  like  another  great  conqueror  and 
ruler,  Justinian  I.,  has  come  down  to  posterity  with  his  legislative 
works  in  his  hand.  He  organized  with  especial  care  the  Turkish 
feudal  system  of  the  Ziamets  and  Timars,  reforming  the  abuses 
which  had  then  already  begun  to  prevail.  He  ordained  that  no 
Timar,  or  small  fief,  should  be  allowed  to  exist  if  below  a  certain 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  185 

1520-1566 

value.  A  number  of  the  smaller  fiefs  might  be  united  so  as  to  form 
a  Ziamet,  or  grand  fief,  but  it  was  never  lawful  to  subdivide  a  Ziamet 
into  Timars,  except  in  the  case  of  a  feudatory  who  was  killed  in 
battle  and  left  more  than  one  son.  By  permission  of  the  supreme 
government  several  persons  might  hold  a  fief  as  joint  tenants;  but 
it  was  still  reckoned  a  single  fief ;  and  any  partition  and  subdivision 
not  especially  authorized  by  the  Sublime  Porte  itself  was  severely 
punished.  The  reader  who  is  familiar  with  the  workings  of  the 
feudal  system  in  western  Europe  will  perceive  how  admirably  these 
provisions  were  adapted  to  check  the  growth  of  evils  like  those  which 
the  practice  of  subinfeudation  produced  in  medieval  Christendom. 
The  Turkish  fiefs  descended  from  father  to  son.  There  was  no 
power  of  devise  or  alienation :  and  in  default  of  male  issue  of  the 
deceased  holder,  the  Timar  or  the  Ziamet  reverted  to  the  Crown. 
It  had  been  usual  before  Suleiman's  time  to  allow  the  Viziers  and 
governors  of  provinces  to  make  grants  of  the  lapsed  fiefs  within 
their  jurisdiction,  but  Suleiman  restricted  this  to  the  case  of  the 
minor  fiefs.  None  but  the  Sultan  could  make  a  new  grant  of  a 
lapsed  Ziamet,  and  in  no  instance  did  the  feudatory  who  received 
the  investiture  of  a  Timar  from  a  subject  pay  any  homage  or  enter 
into  any  relation  of  feudal  duty  to  the  person  who  invested  him. 
There  was  no  mesne  lordship.  The  Spahi  was  the  feudal  vassal 
of  his  Sultan  and  of  his  Sultan  alone. 

The  number  of  the  larger  fiefs,  or  Ziamets,  in  Suleiman's  time 
was  3192;  that  of  the  smaller  fiefs,  or  Timars,  was  50,160.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  each  Spahi,  or  holder  of  a  military  fief,  was 
not  only  bound  to  render  military  service  himself  in  person,  but,  if 
the  value  of  his  fief  exceeded  a  certain  specified  amount,  he  was 
required  to  furnish  and  maintain  an  armed  horseman  for  every 
multiple  of  that  sum ;  or,  to  adopt  the  phraseology  of  early  English 
institutions,  the  estate  was  bound  to  supply  the  Crown  in  time  of 
war  with  a  man-at-arms  for  each  knight's  fee.  The  total  feudal 
array  of  the  empire  in  the  reign  of  Suleiman  amounted  to  150,000 
cavalry,  who,  when  summoned  by  the  Begler  Begs  and  Sanjak 
Begs,  joined  the  army  at  the  appointed  place  of  muster  and  served 
throughout  the  campaign  without  pay.  We  must  not  only  add  this 
number  to  the  48,000  regularly  paid  and  permanent  troops,  when 
we  estimate  the  military  force  of  the  Turkish  Empire  in  its  meridian, 
but  we  must  also  bear  in  mind  the  numerous  squadrons  of  Tartar 
cavalry    which  the  vassal  Khans  of  the  Crimea  sent  to  swell  the 


186  TURKEY 

1520-1566 

Turkish  armies;  and  we  must  remember  the  swarms  of  irregular 
troops,  both  horse  and  foot,  the  Akindji  and  the  Azabs,  which  the 
Suhan's  own  dominions  poured  forth  to  every  campaign.  ^ 

There  is  no  surer  proof  of  tlie  true  greatness  of  Suleiman  as  a 
ruler  than  the  care  which,  at  the  same  time  that  he  reformed  the 
Turkish  feudal  system  so  as  to  make  it  more  efficient  as  an  instru- 
ment of  military  force,  he  bestowed  on  the  condition  of  those  Rayas, 
who,  like  the  serfs  of  medieval  Europe,  cultivated  the  lands  assigned 
to  the  Spain's.  The  "  Kanuni  Raya,"  or  "  Code  of  the  Rayas."  of 
Suleiman,  limited  and  defined  the  rents  and  services  which  the  Raya 
who  occupied  the  ground  was  to  pay  to  his  feudal  lord.  It  is  im- 
possible to  give  any  description  of  this  part  of  the  Turkish  law 
which  shall  apply  with  uniform  correctness  to  all  parts  of  the  Sul- 
tan's dominions.  But  the  general  effect  of  Suleiman's  legislation 
may  be  stated  to  have  been  that  of  recognizing  in  the  Raya  rights 
of  property  in  the  land  which  he  tilled,  subject  to  the  payment  of 
certain  rents  and  dues,  and  the  performance  of  certain  services  for 
his  feudal  superior.  When  the  difference  of  creed  between  the  law- 
giver and  the  Rayas  is  remembered,  and  we  also  bear  in  mind  the 
fact  that  Suleiman,  though  not  a  persecutor  like  his  father,  was  a 
very  sincere  and  devout  Mohammedan,  we  cannot  help  feeling  that 
the  great  Turkish  Sultan  of  the  sixteenth  century  deserves  a  degree 
of  admiration  which  we  can  accord  to  none  of  his  crowned  contem- 
poraries in  that  age  of  melancholy  injustice  and  persecution  be- 
tween Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  throughout  the  Christian 
world. 

The  difference  between  the  lot  of  the  Rayas  under  their  Turk- 
ish masters  and  that  of  the  serfs  of  Christendom,  under  their  fellow- 
Christians  and  fellow-countrymen,  who  were  their  lords,  was 
practically  shown  by  the  anxiety  which  the  inhabitants  of  the  coun- 
tries near  the  Turkish  frontier  showed  to  escape  from  their  homes 
and  live  under  that  Turkish  yoke  which  is  frequently  represented 
as  having  always  been  so  tyrannical.  "  T  have  seen,"  says  a  writer, 
who  was  Suleiman's  contemporary.  "  multitudes  of  Hungarian 
rustics  set  fire  to  their  cottages  and  fly  with  their  wives  and 
children,  their  cattle  and  instruments  of  labor  to  the  Turkish  terri- 
tories, where  they  knew  that,  besides  the  payment  of  the  tenths, 
they  would  be  subject  to  no  imposts  or  vexations." 

Besides  the  important  branches  of  law  and  government  that 

-  Tlie  figures  arc  probably  only  approximate. 


LAST    YEARS     OF     SULEIMAN  187 

1520-1566 

have  been  mentioned,  the  ceremonial  law  (a  far  more  serious  sub- 
ject in  the  East  than  in  Western  Europe),  the  regulations  of  police, 
and  the  criminal  law,  received  the  personal  attention  of  the  great 
Sultan,  and  were  modified  and  remodeled  by  his  edicts.  Every  sub- 
ject-matter of  legislation  is  comprised  in  the  great  code  of  Ottoman 
law  compiled  by  Suleiman's  Molla,  Ibrahim  of  Aleppo,  which  has 
been  in  authority  down  to  the  present  age  in  the  Turkish  Empire. 
Suleiman  mitigated  the  severity  of  the  punishments  which  had 
previously  been  appointed  for  many  offenses.  The  extreme  slight- 
ness  of  the  penalties  with  which  crimes  of  sensuality  were  visited 
by  him  is  justly  blamed  as  a  concession  to  the  favorite  vices  of  the 
Turkish  nation,  but,  in  general,  his  diminution  of  the  frequency 
with  which  the  punishments  of  death  and  mutilation  were  inflicted 
entitles  him  to  the  praise  of  the  modem  jurist.  Some  of  the  more 
noticeable  laws  of  Sultan  Suleiman  are  those  by  which  slanderers 
and  tale-bearers  are  required  to  make  compensation  for  the  mischief 
caused  by  their  evil-speaking;  false  witnesses,  forgers,  and  passers 
of  bad  money  are  to  have  the  right  hand  struck  off;  interest  is  not 
to  be  taken  at  a  higher  rate  than  eleven  per  cent. ;  a  fine  is  imposed 
for  three  consecutive  omissions  of  a  Mussulman's  daily  prayer,  or 
a  breach  of  the  solemn  fasts;  kindness  to  beasts  of  burden  is 
enjoined. 

Whatever  the  political  economists  of  the  present  time  may 
think  of  the  legislation  of  Suleiman  Kanuni  as  to  wages,  manu- 
factures, and  retail  trade,  their  highest  praises  are  due  to  the  en- 
lightened liberality  with  which  the  foreign  merchant  was  welcomed 
in  his  empire.  The  earliest  of  the  contracts,  called  capitulations, 
which  guarantee  to  the  foreign  merchant  in  Turkey  full  protection 
for  person  and  property,  the  free  exercise  of  his  religion,  and  the 
safeguard  of  his  own  laws  administered  by  functionaries  of  his  own 
nation,  was  granted  by  Suleiman  to  France  in  1535.  An  extremely 
moderate  custom  duty  was  the  only  impost  on  foreign  merchandise ; 
and  the  costly  and  vexatious  system  of  prohibitive  and  protective 
duties  has  been  utterly  unknown  among  the  Ottomans.  No  stipu- 
lation for  reciprocity  ever  clogged  the  wise  liberality  of  Turkey  in 
her  treatment  of  the  foreign  merchant  who  became  her  resident,  or 
in  her  admission  of  his  ships  and  his  goods. 

The  splendor  of  the  buildings  with  which  Suleiman  adorned 
Constantinople  suggests  a  point  of  comparison  between  the  great 
Turkish  legislator  and  the  Roman  emperor  who  ruled  ten  centuries 


188  TURKEY 

1520-1566 

before  him  in  addition  to  that  which  their  codes  naturally  bring  be- 
fore the  mind.  The  long  list,  in  which  the  Oriental  historians 
enumerate  the  sumptuous  edifices  raised  by  Suleiman  in  the  seven- 
hilled  city  of  the  Bosphorus,  recalls  the  similar  enumeration  which 
Procopius  has  made  of  the  architectural  splendors  of  Justinian.  And 
it  was  not  only  in  the  capital,  but  at  Bagdad,  Koniah,  Kafifa,  Da- 
mascus, and  other  cities  that  the  taste  and  grandeur  of  Suleiman 
were  displayed.  Besides  the  numerous  mosques  w^hich  were  founded 
or  restored  by  his  private  liberality,  he  decorated  his  empire  and  pro- 
vided for  the  temporal  welfare  of  his  subjects  by  numerous  works  of 
practical  utility.  Among  them  the  great  aqueduct  of  Constan- 
tinople, the  bridge  of  Tchekmedji,  and  the  restored  aqueducts  of 
Mecca  are  mentioned  as  the  most  beneficial  and  magnificent. 

The  names  of  the  poets,  the  historians,  the  legal  and  scientific 
WTiters  who  flourished  under  Suleiman  would  fill  an  ample  page, 
but  it  would  be  one  of  little  interest  to  us  while  Turkish  literature 
remains  so  generally  unknown  in  Western  Europe,  even  through  the 
medium  of  translations.^  But,  because  unknown,  it  must  not  be 
assumed  to  be  unreal,  and  Suleiman  was  as  generous  and  discerning 
a  patron  of  literary  merit  as  any  of  those  sovereigns  of  Western 
Europe  who  have  acquired  for  their  ages  and  courts  the  much- 
coveted  epithet  of  "  Augustan." 

Suleiman's  ow^n  writings  are  considered  to  hold  an  honorable 
station,  though  not  among  the  highest  in  his  nation's  literature.  His 
poems  are  said  to  be  dignified  in  sentiment  and  correct  in  expres- 
sion; and  his  journals,  in  which  he  noted  the  chief  events  of  each 
day  during  his  campaigns,  are  highly  serviceable  to  the  investigator 
of  history.  They  prove  the  Sultan's  possession  of  qualities  which 
are  of  far  more  value  in  a  sovereign  than  are  the  accomplishments  of 
a  successful  author.  They  show"  his  sense  of  duty,  his  industry,  and 
his  orderly  and  unremitting  personal  attention  to  the  civil  as  well 
as  the  military  affairs  of  the  vast  empire  that  had  been  committed 
to  his  charge.  Eaults,  deplorable  faults,  are  unquestionably  to  be 
traced  in  his  reign.  The  excessive  influence  which  he  allowed  his 
favorite  Sultana  to  acquire,  the  cruel  deaths  of  his  children  and 
of  so  many  statesmen  whom  he  gave  over  to  the  executioner  are 
heavy  stains  on  his  memory.      His  owm  countrymen  have  pointed 

3  Von  Hammer's  work  on  Ottoman  literature  is  an  honorable  exception ;  and 
a  series  of  very  valuable  letters,  on  the  same  subject,  by  Von  Hammer,  appeared 
in  the  English  "  Athenaeum  "  some  years  ago. 


LAST  YEARS  OF  SULEIMAN     189 

1520-1566 

out  the  defects  in  his  government.  Kotchi  Beg,  who  wrote  in  the 
reign  of  Murad  IV.  (1623),  and  who  is  termed  by  Von  Hammer 
the  Turkish  Montesquieu,  assigns  in  his  work  on  the  "  Decline  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,"  which  he  traces  up  to  the  reign  of  the  first 
Suleiman,  among  the  causes  of  that  decline — ist,  the  cessation  in 
Suleiman's  time  of  the  regular  attendance  of  the  Sultan  at  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Divan ;  2d,  the  habit  then  introduced  of  appointing  men 
to  high  stations  who  had  not  previously  passed  through  a  gradation 
of  lower  offices ;  3d,  the  venality  and  corruption  first  practiced  by 
Suleiman's  son-in-law  and  Grand  Vizier,  Rustam,  who  sold  to  peo- 
ple of  the  lowest  character  and  capacity  the  very  highest  civil  offices, 
though  the  appointment  to  all  military  ranks,  high  or  low,  was  still 
untainted  by  bribery  or  other  dishonest  influence.  Kotchi  Beg  fur- 
ther censures  Suleiman  for  his  evil  example  in  exceeding  the  limits 
of  wise  liberality  by  heaping  wealth  upon  the  same  favorite  Vizier, 
and  allowing  him  not  only  to  acquire  enormous  riches,  but  to  make 
them,  by  an  abuse  of  the  Turkish  mortmain  law,  inalienable  in  his 
family.  This  was  done  by  transforming  his  estates  into  Vaks  or 
Vakufs;  that  is  to  say,  by  settling  his  property  on  some  mosque  or 
other  religious  foundation,  which  took  from  it  a  small  quit-rent, 
and  held  the  rest  in  trust  for  the  donor  and  his  family.  While 
admitting  the  justice  of  these  charges  of  the  Oriental  historian.  Von 
Hammer  exposes  the  groundlessness  of  the  censure  which  European 
writers  have  passed  upon  Suleiman  when  accusing  him  of  having 
introduced  the  custom  of  shutting  up  the  young  princes  of  the  house 
of  Othman  in  the  seraglio  instead  of  training  them  to  lead  armies 
and  govern  provinces.  He  points  out  that  all  the  sons  of  Suleiman 
who  grew  up  to  manhood  administered  pashalics  under  him,  and  that 
one  of  his  last  acts  before  his  death  was  to  appoint  ^lurad,  his 
grandson,  to  the  government  of  Magnesia. 

In  the  same  spirit  in  which  Arrian  sums  up  the  character  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  the  German  historian  rightly  warns  us,  when 
estimating  that  of  Suleiman  the  Great,  not  to  fix  our  attention  ex- 
clusively on  the  blamable  actions  of  his  life,  but  to  remember  also 
the  bright  and  noble  qualities  which  adorned  him.  As  a  man  he 
was  warm-hearted  and  sincere,  and  honorably  pure  from  the  de- 
praved sensuality  which  has  disgraced  too  many  of  his  nation.  We 
must  remember  his  princely  courage,  his  military  genius,  his  high 
and  enterprising  spirit,  his  strict  observance  of  the  laws  of  his 
religion  without  any  taint  of  bigoted  persecution,   the  order  and 


190  TURKEY 

1520-1566 

economy  which  he  combined  with  so  much  grandeur  and  munifi- 
cence, his  liberal  encouragement  of  art  and  literature,  his  zeal  for 
the  diffusion  of  education,  the  conquests  by  which  he  extended  his 
empire,  and  the  wise  and  comprehensive  legislation  with  which  he 
provided  for  the  good  government  of  all  his  subjects ;  let  him  be  thus 
taken  for  all  in  all,  and  we  shall  feel  his  incontestable  right  to  the 
title  of  a  great  sovereign,  which  for  all  the  intervening  centuries  he 
has  maintained. 


Chapter    XII 

SELIM    II.   AND   THE   BEGINNINGS   OF   DECLINE 

1566-1574 

SULEIMAN  the  Great,  the  Magnificent,  the  Lawgiver,  the 
Lord  of  his  Age,  was  succeeded  by  a  prince  to  whom  his  own 
national  historians  give  the  epithet  of  "  SeHm  the  Sot."  The 
ignoble  vices  of  this  prince  (to  secure  whose  accession  so  much  and 
such  dear  blood  had  been  shed)  had  attracted  the  sorrowful  notice 
and  drawn  down  the  indignant  reprimand  of  the  old  Sultan  in  his 
later  years ;  but  there  was  now  no  brother  to  compete  for  the  throne 
with  Selim;  and  on  September  25,  1566,  the  saber  of  Oth- 
man  was  girt  for  the  first  time  on  a  sovereign  who  shrank  from 
leading  in  person  the  armies  of  Islam,  and  wasted  in  low  debauchery 
the  hours  which  his  predecessors  had  consecrated  to  the  duties  of 
the  state.  The  effects  of  this  fatal  degeneracy  were  not  imme- 
diately visible.  The  perfect  organization,  civil  and  military,  in 
which  Suleiman  had  left  the  empire,  cohered  for  a  time  after  the 
strong  hand  which  had  fashioned  and  knit  it  together  for  nearly 
half  a  century  was  withdrawn.  There  was  a  numerous  body  of 
statesmen  and  generals  who  had  been  trained  under  the  great 
Sultan,  and  thus  somewhat  of  his  spirit  was  preserved  in  the  realm 
until  they  had  passed  away,  and  another  generation  arisen,  which 
knew  not  Suleiman.  Foremost  of  these  was  the  Grand  Vizier 
Mohammed  Sokolli,  who  had  victoriously  concluded  the  campaign 
of  Sziget  after  Suleiman's  death,  and  who,  fortunately  for  Selim 
and  his  kingdom,  acquired  and  maintained  an  ascendency  over  the 
weak  mind  of  the  young  Sultan,  which  was  not  indeed  always 
strong  enough  to  prevent  the  adoption  of  evil  measures,  or  to  curb 
the  personal  excesses  of  Selim's  private  life,  but  which  checked  the 
progress  of  anarchy,  and  maintained  the  air  of  grandeur  in  enter- 
prise and  of  vigor  in  execution  by  which  the  Sublime  Porte  had 
hitherto  been  distinguished. 

An  armistice  was  concluded  with  the  Emperor  Maximilian  in 

191 


192  TURKEY 

1480-1554 

1568,  on  the  terms  that  each  party  should  retain  possession  of 
what  it  then  occupied;  and  there  was  now  for  many  years  an 
unusual  pause  in  the  war  between  the  houses  of  Hapsburg  and 
Othman.  The  great  foreign  events  of  Selim's  reign  are  the  at- 
tempts to  conquer  Astraklian  and  unite  the  Don  and  the  Volga, 
the  conquest  of  Cyprus,  and  the  naval  war  of  the  battle  of  Lepanto. 
The  first  of  these  is  peculiarly  interesting,  because  the  Turks  were 
then  for  the  first  time  brought  into  armed  collision  with  the  Rus- 
sians. 

In  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  while  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  then  at  the  meridian  of  its  glory,  was  the  terror  and  admira- 
tion of  the  world,  the  Russian  was  slowly  and  painfully  struggling 
out  of  the  degradation  and  ruin  with  which  it  had  been  afflicted  by 
two  centuries  and  a  half  of  Tartar  conquest.  The  craft  and  courage 
of  Ivan  III.  and  Vasili  Ivanovich  had,  between  1480  and  1533, 
emancipated  Moscow  from  paying  tribute  to  the  Khans  of  Golden 
Horde;  and,  by  annexing  other  Russian  principalities  to  that  of 
Moscow,  these  princes  had  formed  a  united  Russia,  which  ex- 
tended from  Kief  to  Kasan  and  as  far  as  Siberia  and  Norwegian 
Lapland.  Even  thus  early  the  Grand  Dukes,  or,  as  they  began  to 
style  themselves,  the  Czars  of  Moscow,  seem  to  have  cherished 
ambitious  projects  of  reigning  at  Constantinople.  Ivan  III.  sought 
out  and  married  Sophia,  the  last  princess  of  the  Greek  imperial 
family  from  which  the  conquering  Ottomans  had  wrested  Byzan- 
tium. From  that  time  forth  the  two-headed  eagle,  which  had  been 
the  imperial  cognizance  of  the  emperors  of  Constantinople,  has 
been  assumed  by  the  Russian  sovereigns  as  their  symbol  of  dominion. 
During  the  minority  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  (who  succeeded  in  1533) 
a  period  of  anarchy  ensued  in  Russia,  but  on  that  prince  assuming 
the  government,  the  vigor  of  the  state  was  restored,  the  Khanates  of 
Astrakhan  and  Kasan  were  conquered  and  finally  annexed  to  Russia, 
the  Don  Cossacks  were  united  with  the  empire,  and  Yermak,  one 
of  their  chiefs,  invaded  and  acquired  for  Ivan  the  vast  regions  of 
Siberia. 

The  Russians,  at  the  time  of  Selim's  accession,  had  been  in- 
volved in  fierce  and  frequent  wars  with  the  Sultan's  vassals,  the 
Crim  Tartars;  but  the  Porte  had  taken  no  part  in  these  contests. 
But  the  bold  genius  of  the  Vizier  Sokolli  now  attempted  the  reali- 
zation of  a  project  which,  if  successful,  would  have  barred  the 
southern  progress  of  Russia  by  firmly  planting  the  Ottoman  power 


SELIM     II       AND     DECLINE  193 

1554-1570 

on  the  banks  of  the  Don  and  the  Volga  and  along  the  shores  of  the 
Caspian  Sea.  The  Turkish  armies,  in  their  invasions  of  Persia, 
had  always  suffered  severely  during  their  marches  along  the  sterile 
and  mountainous  regions  of  Upper  Armenia  and  Mazerbijan. 
Some  disputes  with  Persia  had  arisen  soon  after  Selim's  accession 
which  made  a  war  with  that  kingdom  seem  probable,  and  Sokolli 
proposed  to  unite  the  rivers  Don  and  Volga  by  a  canal,  and  then 
send  a  Turkish  armament  up  the  Sea  of  Azov  and  the  Don,  thence 
across  by  the  intended  channel  to  the  Volga,  and  then  down  the 
latter  river  into  the  Caspian,  from  the  southern  shores  of  which  sea 
the  Ottomans  might  strike  at  Tabriz  and  the  heart  of  the  Persian 
power.  Those  two  mighty  rivers,  the  Don  and  the  Volga,  run 
toward  each  other,  the  one  from  the  northwest,  the  other  from  the 
northeast,  for  many  hundred  leagues,  until  they  are  within  thirty 
miles  of  junction.  They  then  diverge,  and  the  Don  pours  its  waters 
into  the  Sea  of  Azov  near  the  city  of  that  name ;  the  Volga  blends 
with  the  Caspian  at  a  little  distance  from  the  city  of  Astrakhan, 
which  is  built  on  the  principal  branch  of  the  delta  of  that  river. 
The  project  of  uniting  them  by  a  canal  is  said  to  have  been  one 
entertained  by  Seleucus  Nicator,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  successors 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  It  was  now  revived  by  the  Grand  Vizier 
of  Selim  II.,  and  though  the  cloud  of  hostility  with  Persia  passed 
over,  Sokolli  determined  to  persevere  with  the  scheme,  the  immense 
commercial  and  political  advantages  of  w^hich,  if  completed,  were 
evident  to  the  old  statesman  of  Suleiman  the  Great.  Azov  already 
belonged  to  the  Turks,  but  in  order  to  realize  the  great  project 
entertained,  it  was  necessary  to  occupy  Astrakhan  also.  Accord- 
ingly, 3000  Janissaries  and  20,000  horse  were  sent  to  besiege  As- 
trakhan, and  a  cooperative  force  of  30,000  Tartars  was  ordered 
to  join  them,  and  to  aid  in  making  the  canal.  Five  thousand 
Janissaries  and  3000  pioneers  were  at  the  same  time  sent  to 
Azov  to  commence  and  secure  the  great  work  at  its  western  ex- 
tremity. But  the  generals  of  Ivan  the  Terrible  did  their  duty  to 
their  stern  master  ably  in  this  emergency.  The  Russian  garrison 
of  Astrakhan  sallied  on  its  besiegers  and  repulsed  them  with  con- 
siderable loss.  And  a  Russian  army  15,000  strong,  under  Prince 
Serebinov,  came  suddenly  on  the  workmen  and  Janissaries  near 
Azov  and  put  them  to  headlong  flight.  It  was  upon  this  occasion 
that  the  first  trophies  won  from  the  Turks  came  into  Russian  hands. 
An  army  of  Tartars   which  marched  to  succor  the  Turks    was  also 


194  TURKEY 

1570-1571 

entirely  defeated  by  Ivan's  forces ;  and  the  Ottomans,  dispirited  by 
their  losses  and  reverses,  withdrew  altogether  from  the  enterprise. 
Their  Tartar  allies,  who  knew  that  the  close  neighborhood  of  the 
Turks  would  ensure  their  own  entire  subjection  to  the  Sultan, 
eagerly  promoted  the  distaste  which  the  Ottomans  had  acquired  for 
Sokolli's  project,  by  enlarging  on  the  horrors  of  the  climate  of 
Russia,  and  especially  on  the  peril  in  which  the  short  summer  nights 
of  those  northern  regions  placed  either  the  soul  or  the  body  of  the 
true  believer.  As  the  Mohammendan  law  requires  the  evening 
prayer  to  be  said  two  hours  after  sunset  and  the  morning  prayer  to 
be  repeated  at  the  dawn  of  day,  it  was  necessary  that  a  Moslem 
should,  in  a  night  of  only  three  hours  long  (according  to  the  Tar- 
tars), either  lose  his  natural  rest  or  violate  the  commands  of  his 
Prophet.  The  Turks  gladly  reimbarked  and  left  the  unpropitious 
soil ;  but  a  tempest  assailed  their  flotilla  on  its  homeward  voy- 
age, and  only  7000  of  their  whole  force  ever  returned  to  Constan- 
tinople. 

Russia  was  yet  far  too  weak  to  enter  on  a  war  of  retaliation 
with  the  Turks.  She  had  subdued  the  Tartar  Khanates  of  Kasan 
and  Astrakhan,  but  their  kinsmen  of  the  Crimea  were  still  for- 
midable enemies  to  the  Russians,  even  without  Turkish  aid.  It 
was  only  two  years  after  the  Ottoman  expedition  to  the  Don  and 
Volga  that  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  made  a  victorious  inroad  into 
Russia,  took  Moscow  by  storm,  and  sacked  the  city  (1571).  The 
Czar  Ivan  had,  in  1570,  sent  an  ambassador,  named  Nosolitov,  to 
Constantinople  to  complain  of  the  Turkish  attack  on  Astrakhan, 
and  to  propose  that  there  should  be  peace,  friendship,  and  alliance 
between  the  two  empires.  Nosolitov,  in  addressing  the  Viziers, 
dwelt  much  on  the  toleration  which  his  master  showed  to  Moham- 
medans in  his  dominions,  as  a  proof  that  the  Czar  was  no  enem.y  to 
the  faith  of  Islam.  The  Russian  ambassador  was  favorably  received 
at  the  Sublime  Porte,  and  no  further  hostilities  between  the  Turks 
and  Russians  took  place  for  nearly  a  century.  But  the  Ottoman 
pride  and  contempt  for  Russia  were  shown  by  the  Sultan  omitting 
to  make  the  customary  inquiry  of  Nosolitov  respecting  his  royal 
master's  health,  and  by  the  Czar's  representative  not  receiving  the 
invitation  to  a  dinner  before  audience  which  was  usually  sent  to 
ambassadors. 

Besides  his  project  for  uniting  the  Volga  and  the  Don,  the 
Grand  Vizier  Sokolli  had  revived  the  oft-formed  project  of  open- 


SELIMII       AND     DECLINE  195 

1570-1571 

ing  a  communication  between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean. 
Sokolli  grandly  designed  to  make  such  a  channel  through  the 
Isthmus  of  Suez  as  would  enable  the  Ottoman  fleets  to  sail  from 
sea  to  sea.  His  schemes  in  this  quarter  were  delayed  by  a  revolt 
which  broke  out  in  Arabia,  and  was  not  quelled  without  a  difficult 
and  sanguinary  war.  And  when  that  important  province  was 
brought  back  to  submission  the  self-willed  cupidity  and  violence 
of  Sultan  Selim  himself  involved  the  Porte  in  a  war  with  Venice 
and  other  Christian  states  for  the  sake  of  acquiring  the  island  of 
Cyprus,  which  he  had  coveted  while  he  was  governor  of  Kutahia 
in  his  father's  lifetime.^  There  was  a  treaty  of  peace  between 
Venice  and  the  Porte ,  but  Selim  obtained  from  his  Mufti  Ebusouud 
a  fetwah  authorizing  him  to  attack  Cyprus  in  open  violation  of  the 
treaty.  Cyprus  had  at  one  time  been  under  Mohammedan  rulers, 
and  the  Turkish  authorities  now  proclaimed  and  acted  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  sovereign  of  Islam  may  at  any  time  break  a  treaty 
for  the  sake  of  reconquering  from  the  misbelievers  a  country  which 
has  formerly  belonged  to  the  territory  of  Islam. 

The  Grand  Vizier  Sokolli  earnestly,  but  vainly,  opposed  the 
war  with  Venice.  His  influence  was  counteracted  by  that  of  the 
infamous  Lala  Mustapha,  who  had  in  Suleiman's  reign  been  Selim's 
instrument  in  the  destruction  of  Prince  Bayezid  and  his  family. 
Lala  Mustapha  obtained  the  command  of  the  expedition  against 
Cyprus,  and  the  island  was  subdued  by  the  Turks  (1570-1571), 
though  50,000  of  them  perished  to  effect  its  conquest.  The  con- 
duct of  the  war  of  Cyprus  was  as  disgracefully  treacherous  and 
cruel  on  the  part  of  the  Turks  as  its  inception  had  been  flagrantly 
unjust.  The  Venetian  commandant,  Bragadino,  who  had  defended 
Famagosta,  the  chief  stronghold  of  the  island,  with  heroic  valor  and 
constancy,  was  subjected  to  the  grossest  indignities,  and  at  last  flayed 
alive,  though  he  had  surrendered  on  the  faith  of  a  capitulation  by 
which  the  garrison  were  to  march  out  with  all  their  arms  and  prop- 
erty and  to  be  transported  in  Turkish  vessels  to  Candia. 

The  fall  of  Cyprus,  the  unscrupulous  violence  with  which  it  had 
been  attacked,  and  the  immense  preparations  in  the  Turkish  seaports 
and  arsenals  now  raised  anxious  alarm,  not  only  at  Venice,  but 
all  along  the  Christian  shores  of  the  ^Mediterranean.     The  Pope, 

1  It  seems  that  Selim,  like  Cassio,  found  the  attraction  of  Cyprus  wine  irre- 
sistible. A  Jew,  named  Joseph  Nassy,  had  been  Selim's  boon  companion,  and 
persuaded  him  that  he  ought  to  be  master  of  the  isle  in  which  the  juice  of  the 
grape  was  so  delicious.     See  Von  Hammer,  vol.  ii.  p.  400. 


196  TURKEY 

1571 

Pius  v.,  succeeded  in  forming  a  maritime  league,  of  which  the 
Spaniards,  the  Venetians,  and  the  Knights  of  Malta  were  the  prin- 
cipal members,  and  at  the  head  of  it  was  placed  Don  John  of 
Austria,  the  natural  son  of  Charles  V.,  and  one  of  the  most  re- 
nowned commanders  of  the  age. 

The  confederate  fleets  mustered  at  Messina  early  in  the  autumn 
of  1 571.  The  force  led  thither  by  Don  John  consisted  of  seventy- 
seven  Spanish  galleys,  six  Maltese,  and  three  of  Savoy.  The  Papal 
squadron,  under  Marc  Colonna,  added  twelve  galleys.  The  Vene- 
tian Admiral  Veniero  brought  108  galleys  and  six  huge  galeasses, 
or  mahons.  of  a  larger  size  and  carrying  a  heavier  weight  of  metal 
than  had  yet  been  known  in  Mediterranean  warfare.  Great  care 
had  been  paid  by  all  the  confederates  to  the  proper  selection  of  their 
crews  and  the  equipment  of  their  vessels.  Nobly  born  volunteers 
from  all  parts  of  Roman  Catholic  Christendom  had  flocked  together 
to  serve  under  so  celebrated  a  chief  as  Don  John,  and  in  such  an 
honorable  enterprise ;  and  the  Christian  fleet,  in  the  highest  state  of 
efficiency,  sailed  across  to  seek  its  enemies  eastward  of  the  Ionian 
Gulf. 

The  Turkish  naval  forces  were  assembled  in  the  Gulf  of  Cor- 
inth. The  Capudan  Pasha,  Muzinzade  Ali,  was  commander-in- 
chief,  and  under  him  were  the  well-known  Uludj  Ali,  Begler  Beg  of 
Algiers;  Djaffer  Pasha.  Begler  Beg  of  Tripoli;  Hassan  Pasha,  the 
son  of  Khaireddin  Barbarossa,  and  fifteen  other  begs  of  maritime 
Sanjaks,  each  of  whom  was  entitled  to  hoist  his  banner  on  his 
galley  as  a  Prince  of  the  Sea.  The  troops  embarked  on  board  the 
fleet  were  commanded  by  Pertev  Pasha.  The  fleet  amounted  to 
240  galleys  and  sixty  vessels  of  smaller  size.  Uludj  Ali  and  Pertev 
Pasha  represented  to  the  commander-in-chief  that  the  fleet  was 
hastily  and  imperfectly  manned,  and  that  it  was  imprudent  to  fight 
a  general  battle  until  it  was  in  a  better  state  of  equipment.  But 
^Mnzinzade's  courage  prevailed  over  his  discretion,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  fleet  was  the  result. 

On  October  7,  1571,  a  little  after  noon,  the  Christian  fleet 
appeared  near  the  entrance  of  the  Gulf  of  Patras,  off  the  little 
islands  of  Curzolari  (the  ancient  Echinades),  which  lie  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Aspro  Potamo  (the  Achelous),  on  the  Albanian  shore. 
The  Ottoman  fleet  sailed  out  of  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto  to  encounter 
them,  and  formed  in  line  of  battle,  Uludj  Ali  commanding  the  left 
wing,  Mohammed  Shaulah,  Beg  of  Negropont.  heading  the  right 


nON'    jniTN"    OF    AT'PTRIA,    TTIF.   VICTOR    OF    T.FPAN'TO 

(P,orn    1546.      Died    t?7R") 

Paujtiiis;  hy  /}!on.<:o   Scinches  CoeUo 


SELIMII       AND     DECLINE  197 

1571 

wing,  and  the  Capudan  Pasha,  aided  by  Pertev  Pasha,  being  in  the 
center.  Don  John  drew  up  his  chief  force  in  the  center  in  the  form 
of  a  crescent.  The  Prince  of  Parma  (afterward  so  well  known  in 
Holland,  and  the  intended  conqueror  of  England),  the  Admiral  of 
Savoy,  Caraccioli,  the  Neapolitan  admiral,  and  other  illustrious 
leaders  were  in  command  of  it.  The  Marquis  of  Santa  Croce  com- 
manded a  squadron  that  was  stationed  in  the  rear  of  the  main  line 
as  a  reserve.  A  division  of  fifty-three  galleys,  under  the  Venetian 
proveditor,  Barbarigo,  formed  the  right  wing,  and  the  left  wing 
consisted  of  fifty-four  galleys,  under  Gian  Andrea  Doria,  nephew  of 
the  great  admiral  of  the  Emperor  Charles.  Don  John  took  his  own 
station  in  advance  of  the  center  line,  and  the  other  two  admirals 
of  the  fleet,  Colonna  and  Veniero,  were  at  his  sides.  The  Turkish 
Capudan  Pasha  seeing  this,  brought  forward  his  own  galley  and 
those  of  Pertev  Pasha  and  his  treasurer  to  answer  the  challenge 
of  the  tliree  admiral  galleys  of  the  Christians,  that  thus  stood 
forward  between  the  battles,  like  the  Promachi  in  the  conflicts  of  the 
Homeric  heroes. 

Don  John  showed  his  gallantry  by  thus  taking  the  post  of 
danger;  but  he  also  showed  his  skill  by  placing  the  six  great 
Venetian  galeasses  like  redoubts  at  intervals  in  front  of  the  con- 
federate fleet.  The  Turks  had  less  fear  of  these  huge  vessels  than 
might  have  been  justified  by  the  event  of  the  day ;  but  there  was  a 
pause  before  they  began  the  attack,  and  each  fleet  lay  motionless  for 
a  time,  regarding  with  admiration  and  secret  awe  the  strength  and 
the  splendor  of  its  adversary's  array.  At  length  the  Turkish  ad- 
miral fired  a  gun,  charged  with  powder  only,  as  a  challenge  to  begin 
the  action.  A  ball  from  one  of  Don  John's  heaviest  cannon  whistled 
through  the  Ottoman  rigging  in  answer;  with  loud  shouts  amid 
the  clangor  of  their  drums  and  fifes  the  Turks  rowed  forward  to  the 
attack,  and  the  action,  commencing  on  the  Christian  left,  soon  be- 
came general  along  the  line.  The  large  Venetian  galeasses  now 
proved  of  the  utmost  service  to  the  Christian  fleet.  The  Turkish 
galleys  in  passing  them  were  obliged  to  break  their  order;  and  the 
fire  kept  up  by  the  Venetian  artillerymen  from  the  heavy  ordnance 
of  the  galeasses  was  more  destructive  than  ever  yet  had  been  wit- 
nessed in  naval  gunnery.  Still  the  Turks  pressed  forward  and 
engaged  the  Christian  left  and  center  with  obstinate  courage.  The 
two  high  admirals  of  the  conflicting  fleets,  Don  John  and  Muzinzade 
AH,  cncountereil  each  other  with  equal  gallantry.      Their  vessels 


198  TURKEY 

1571 

clashed  together  and  then  lay  closely  locked  for  upward  of  two 
hours,  during  which  time  the  300  Janissaries  and  100  arquebusiers 
of  the  Turk,  and  the  400  chosen  arquebusiers  who  served  on  board 
Don  John's  ship,  fought  with  the  most  determined  bravery.  The 
two  other  admiral  galleys  of  the  Christians  had  come  to  the  support 
of  Don  John,  and  the  Capudan  Pasha's  galley  was  similarly  aided  by 
her  consorts ;  so  that  these  six  ships  formed  a  compact  mass  in  the 
midst  of  the  battle  like  that  which  was  grouped  round  Nelson  in  the 
Victory,  by  the  Temeraire,  the  Redoubtable,  and  the  Neptune  at  the 
battle  of  Trafalgar.  The  death  of  Muzinzade,  who  fell  shot  dead 
by  a  musket  ball,  decided  the  memorable  contest.  The  Turkish 
admiral  galley  was  carried  by  boarding;  and  when  Santa  Croce 
came  on  to  support  the  first  line  with  the  reserve  the  whole  Ottoman 
center  was  broken,  and  the  defeat  soon  extended  to  the  right  wing. 
In  their  left  Uludj  Ali  was  more  successful.  He  outmanuvered 
Doria,  turned  his  wing,  and,  attacking  his  ships  when  disordered 
and  separated  one  from  another,  Uludj  Ali  captured  fifteen  Maltese 
and  Venetian  galleys,  and  with  his  own  hand  struck  off  the  head  of 
the  commandant  of  Messina.  But  seeing  that  the  day  was  irre- 
parably lost  for  Turkey,  Uludj  collected  forty  of  his  best  galleys, 
pushed  with  them  through  the  Christian  vessels  that  tried  to  inter- 
cept him,  and  stood  safely  out  to  sea.  They  were  the  only  Turkish 
vessels  that  escaped.  The  Ottomans  lost  in  this  great  battle  260 
ships,  of  which  ninety-four  were  sunk,  burned,  or  run  aground  and 
destroyed  upon  the  coast ;  the  rest  were  captured  and  divided  among 
the  allies.  Thirty  thousand  Turks  were  slain  and  15,000  Chris- 
tians who  had  served  as  galley  slaves  in  the  Ottoman  fleet  were 
rescued  from  captivity. 

The  confederates  lost  fifteen  galleys  and  8000  men.  Many 
princely  and  noble  names  are  recorded  in  the  lists  of  the  killed  and 
wounded  of  that  day;  but  there  is  none  which  we  read  with  more 
interest  than  that  of  Cervantes.  The  author  of  "  Don  Quixote  " 
served  at  Lepanto  as  a  volunteer  in  the  regiment  of  Moncada, 
which  was  distributed  among  part  of  the  fleet.  On  the  day  of  the 
battle  Cervantes  was  stationed  on  board  the  galley  Marquesa,  and 
though  suffering  severely  with  illness,  he  distinguished  himself 
greatly  in  the  action,  during  which  he  received  two  arquebus 
wounds,  one  of  which  maimed  his  left  hand  for  life.  He  often 
referred  with  just  pride  to  the  loss  of  his  hand,  and  ever  rejoiced  at 
having  been  present  at  the  glorious  action  at  Lepanto ;  "  on  that  day 


SELIMII      AND     DECLINE  199 

1571-1573 

SO  fortunate  to  Christendom,  when "  (in  his  own  words)  "  all 
nations  were  undeceived  of  their  error  in  believing  that  the  Turks 
were  invincible  at  sea."  ^ 

The  glories  of  the  "  Fight  of  Lepanto  "  thrilled  Christendom 
with  rapture,  and  they  have  for  centuries  been  the  favorite  themes 
of  literature  and  art.  But  the  historian,  Von  Hammer,  well  ob- 
serves that  we  ought  to  think  with  sadness  of  the  nullity  of  the 
results  of  such  a  battle.  After  occupying  three  weeks  in  dividing 
the  spoils  of  Lepanto,  and  nearly  coming  to  blows  over  them,  the 
Christian  squadrons  returned  to  their  respective  ports,  to  be 
thanked,  lauded,  and  dismissed.  Meanwhile,  the  indefatigable 
Uludj  Ali,  with  the  squadron  which  he  had  saved  from  Lepanto, 
gleaned  together  the  Turkish  galleys  that  lay  in  the  different  ports 
of  the  Archipelago,  and  at  the  end  of  December  sailed  proudly  into 
the  port  of  Constantinople  at  the  head  of  a  fleet  of  eighty-seven  sail. 
In  recompense  for  his  zeal,  he  received  the  rank  of  Capudan  Pasha, 
and  the  Sultan  changed  his  name  of  Uludj  into  Kilidj,  which  means 
*'  The  Sword."  The  veteran  Admiral  Piali  was  yet  alive,  and 
under  his  and  Kilidj  Ali's  vigorous  and  skillful  directions  a  new 
fleet  was  constructed  and  launched  before  the  winter  was  past. 
While  the  rejoicing  Christians  built  churches  the  resolute  Turks 
built  docks.  The  effect  was  that  before  June  a  Turkish  fleet  of  250 
sail,  comprising  eight  galeasses  or  mahons  of  the  largest  size,  sailed 
forth  to  assert  the  dominion  of  the  seas.  The  confederate  Christian 
powers,  after  long  delays,  collected  a  force  numerically  superior  to 
the  Ottoman ;  but  though  two  indecisive  encounters  took  place,  they 
were  unable  to  chase  Kilidj  Ali  from  the  western  coasts  of  Greece, 
nor  could  the  Duke  of  Parma  undertake  the  siege  of  Modon,  which 
had  been  designed  as  the  chief  operation  for  that  year.  It  was 
evident  that  though  the  Christian  confederates  could  win  a  battle, 
the  Turk  was  still  their  superior  in  a  war.^  The  Venetians  sought 
peace  in  1573,  and  in  order  to  obtain  it  consented  not  only  that  the 
Sultan  should  retain  Cyprus,  but  that  Venice  should  pay  him  his 
expenses  of  the  conquest.     It  was  not  unnaturally  remarked  by 

2  Cervantes,  "  Don  Quixote,"  book  iv.  ch.   12. 

3  The  Venetian  envoy,  Barbaro,  endeavored  to  open  negotiations  at  Con- 
stantinople in  the  winter  after  the  battle  of  Lepanto.  The  Vizier,  in  reference 
to  the  loss  of  the  Turkish  fleet,  and  the  conquest  of  Cyprus,  said  to  him :  "  There 
is  a  great  difference  between  our  loss  and  yours.  You  have  shaved  our  chin;  but 
our  beard  is  growing  again.  We  have  lopped  off  your  arm;  and  you  can  never 
replace  it." 


200  TURKEY 

1573-1574 

those  who  heard  the  terms  of  the  treaty  that  it  sounded  as  if  the 
Turks  had  gained  the  battle  of  Lepanto. 

After  Venice  had  made  peace  with  the  Porte,  Don  John  under- 
took an  expedition  with  the  Spanish  fleet  against  Tunis,  which 
Uludj  Ah  had  conquered  during  the  year  in  which  Cyprus  was 
attacked.  Don  John  succeeded  in  capturing  the  city,  which  was  the 
more  easy  inasmuch  as  the  citadel  had  continued  in  the  power  of  the 
Spaniards.  Don  John  built  a  new  fortress  and  left  a  powerful 
garrison  in  Tunis ;  but  eighteen  months  after  his  departure  his  old 
enemy,  Kilidj  Ali,  reappeared  there  and  after  a  sharp  siege  made  the 
Sultan  again  master  of  the  city  and  citadel,  and  stormed  Don  John's 
new  castle.  Tunis  now,  like  Algiers  and  Tripoli,  became  an  Otto- 
man government.  The  effectual  authority  which  the  Porte  exer- 
cised over  these  piratical  states  of  North  Africa  (which  are  often 
called  the  Barbaresque  Regencies)  grew  weaker  in  course  of  time; 
but  the  tie  of  allegiance  was  not  entirely  broken,  and  though  the 
French  have  seized  Algiers,  the  Sultan  is  still  sovereign  of  Tripoli 
and  Tunis,  the  scenes  of  the  successful  valor  of  Dragut  and  Kilidj 
Ali. 

Selim  the  Sot  died  not  long  after  the  recovery  of  Tunis;  and 
the  manner  of  his  death  befitted  the  manner  of  his  life.  He  had 
drunk  off  a  bottle  of  Cyprus  wine  at  a  draught,  and  on  entering  the 
bathroom  with  the  fumes  of  his  favorite  beverage  in  his  head,  he 
slipped  and  fell  on  the  marble  floor,  receiving  an  injury  of  the  skull 
which  brought  on  a  fatal  fever  (1574).  He  showed  once  a  spark 
of  the  true  Othman  by  the  zeal  with  which  he  aided  his  officers  in 
restoring  the  Turkish  navy  after  Lepanto.  He  then  contributed  his 
private  treasures  liberally,  and  gave  up  part  of  the  pleasure-gardens 
of  the  Serail  for  the  site  of  the  new  docks.  Except  this  brief  flash 
of  patriotism  or  pride,  his  whole  career,  both  as  prince  and  Sultan, 
is  unrelieved  by  a  single  merit ;  and  it  is  blackened  by  mean  treach- 
ery, by  gross  injustice  and  cruelty,  and  by  groveling  servitude  to  the 
coarsest  appetites  of  our  nature. 


Chapter    XIII 

DECAY   OF   THE    EMPIRE.     1574-1623 

MURAD  III.  was  summoned  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight 
from  his  government  at  Magnesia  to  succeed  his  father 
at  Constantinople.  He  arrived  at  the  capital  on  the 
night  of  December  21,  1574,  and  his  first  act  was  to  order  the 
execution  of  his  five  brothers.  In  the  morning  the  high  oi'ficers 
of  state  were  assembled  to  greet  their  master,  and  the  first  words  of 
the  new  Sultan  were  anxiously  watched  for,  as  ominous  of  the  com- 
ing events  of  his  reign.  Murad,  who  had  retired  to  rest  fatigued 
v^'ith  his  voyage,  and  literally  fasting  from  all  but  sin,  turned  to  the 
Aga  of  the  Eunuchs  and  said,  "  I  am  hungry ;  bring  me  something  to 
eat."  These  words  were  considered  to  be  prophetic  of  scarcity 
during  his  reign ;  and  the  actual  occurrence  of  a  famine  at  Constan- 
tinople in  the  following  year  did  much  to  confirm  the  popular  super- 
stition. 

Sokolli  retained  the  Grand  Vizierate  until  his  death  in  1578, 
but  the  effeminate  heart  of  Murad  was  ruled  by  courtiers,  who 
amused  his  listless  melancholy,  and  by  four  women,  one  of  whom 
was  his  mother,  the  dowager  Sultana,  or  (as  the  Turks  term  her) 
the  Sultana  Valide,  Xour  Banou :  the  next  was  Murad's  first  favor- 
ite Sultana,  a  Venetian  lady  of  the  noble  house  of  Baffo,  who  had 
been  captured  by  a  Turkish  corsair  in  her  early  years.  The  third 
was  a  beautiful  Hungarian,  who,  however,  never  quite  superseded 
the  influence  of  the  Venetian ;  the  fourth  was  Djanfeda,  the  Kraya, 
or  grand  mistress  of  the  harem.  These  were  the  chief  ladies  who 
interposed  and  debated  on  all  cjuestions  how  the  power  bequeathed 
by  the  great  Suleiman  should  be  wielded,  and  with  whom  the  house 
of  Othman  should  have  peace  or  war. 

Except  for  collisions  that  from  time  to  time  took  place  near  the 
boundary  line  in  Hungary  between  the  Turkish  Pashas  and  Chris- 
tian commandants  of  the  respective  border  countries,  the  Ottoman 
Empire  preserved  peace  with  the  powers  of  Christian  Europe  during 
tiic  reign  of  iXiurad  III.  until  two  years  before  his  death,  when  war 

201 


202  TURKEY 

1579-1588 

was  declared  against  Austria.  Commercial  and  diplomatic  relations 
were  established  under  Alurad  with  the  greater  part  of  Western 
Europe,  the  Ottomans  ever  showing  the  same  wise  liberality  in  all 
that  relates  to  international  traffic,  that  has  been  already  mentioned. 
England,  which  until  the  time  of  Alurad  III.  had  been  a  stranger 
to  Turkey,  sent  in  1579  three  merchants,  William  Harebone,  Ed- 
ward Ellis,  and  Richard  Stapel,  to  Constantinople,  who  sought  and 
obtained  from  the  Porte  the  same  favor  to  English  commerce  and 
the  same  privileges  for  English  commercial  residents  in  Turkey  that 
other  foreign  nations  enjoyed.  In  1583  William  Harebone  was 
accredited  to  Constantinople  as  the  ambassador  of  Queen  Elizabeth, 
who  was  then  the  especial  object  of  hatred  of  Philip  II.  of  Spain, 
and  sought  anxiously  to  induce  the  Sultan  to  make  common  cause 
with  her  against  the  Spanish  king  and  the  Pope  of  Rome.  In  her 
state  papers  to  the  Ottoman  court,  the  Protestant  queen  styled  her- 
self "  The  unconquered  and  most  puissant  defender  of  the  true  faith 
against  the  idolaters  who  falsely  profess  the  name  of  Christ  " ;  and 
there  is  a  letter  addressed  by  her  agent  at  the  Porte  to  the  Sultan 
in  November,  1587,  at  the  time  when  Spain  was  threatening  England 
with  the  Great  Armada,  in  which  the  Sultan  is  implored  to  send,  if 
not  the  whole  tremendous  force  of  his  empire,  at  least  sixty  or  eighty 
galleys,  "  against  that  idolater,  the  King  of  Spain,  who,  relying  on 
the  help  of  the  Pope  and  all  idolatrous  princes,  designs  to  crush 
the  Queen  of  England,  and  then  to  turn  his  whole  power  to  the 
destruction  of  the  Sultan,  and  make  himself  universal  monarch.'' 
The  English  advocate  urges  on  the  Ottoman  sovereign  that  if  he 
and  Elizabeth  join  promptly  and  vigorously  in  maritime  warfare 
against  Spain,  the  "  proud  Spaniard  and  the  lying  Pope  with  all  their 
followers  will  be  struck  down  " ;  that  God  will  protect  His  own, 
and  punish  the  idolaters  of  the  earth  by  the  arms  of  England  and 
Turkey.^ 

The  evils  which  the  general  prevalence  of  venality  and  the  force 
of  feminine  intrigue  at  the  Sultan's  court  had  brought  upon  the 
Ottoman  Empire  were  not  yet  apparent  to  foreigners,  who  only  saw 
its  numerous  fleets  and  armies,  and  only  heard  of  its  far-extended 
conquests ;  but  before  the  close  of  Murad's  reign  the  inevitable  fruits 
of  corruption  and  favoritism  were  unmistakably  manifest.  Every 
appointment,  civil,  military,  judicial,  or  administrative,  was  now 

1  The  letters  are  given  at  length  by  Von  Hammer  ("  History  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire  ")   in  his  notes  to  his  thirtv-ninth  book. 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  203 

1589-1593 

determined  by  court  influence  or  money.  The  Sultan,  who  squan- 
dered large  sums  on  the  musicians,  the  parasites,  and  buffoons,  by 
whom  he  loved  to  be  surrounded,  was  often  personally  in  need  of 
money,  and  at  last  stooped  to  the  degradation  of  taking  part  of  the 
bribes  which  petitioners  for  office  gave  to  his  courtiers. 

The  armies  and  military  organization  of  the  Porte  now  began 
to  show  the  workings  of  this  taint,  not  only  through  the  effect  of 
incompetent  men  receiving  rank  as  generals  and  as  officers,  but 
through  the  abuses  with  which  its  feudal  system  was  overrun,  and 
the  sale  of  Ziamets  and  Timars  to  traffickers  of  every  descrip- 
tion :  even  to  Jews  and  Jewesses,  who  either  sold  them  again  to  the 
best  bidders  or  received  the  profits  of  the  feudal  lands  in  defiance 
both  of  the  spirit  and  letter  of  the  law.  An  alarming  relaxation  of 
discipline  among  the  troops  and  increasing  turbulence  and  insubor- 
dination accompanied  those  scandals;  and  at  last,  in  1589,  the  Janis- 
saries openly  attacked  the  Serail  of  the  Sultan  where  the  Divan  was 
assembled,  and  demanded  the  head  of  Mohammed  Pasha,  Begler  Beg 
of  Rumelia,  surnamed  "  the  Falcon  "  for  his  rapacity.  Their  anger 
against  this  royal  favorite  was  not  causeless,  for  it  was  at  his  insti- 
gation that  the  pay  of  the  troops  had  been  given  in  grossly  debased 
coinage.  They  now  attacked  the  palace  and  cried,  "  Give  us  up  the 
Begler  Beg,  or  we  shall  know  how  to  find  our  way  even  to  the 
Sultan."  Murad  ordered  that  the  soldiery  should  receive  satisfac- 
tion, and  accordingly  the  heads  of  the  guilty  Pasha  and  of  an 
innocent  treasurer  whom  they  had  involved  in  their  angry  accusa- 
tions were  laid  before  these  military  sovereigns  of  the  sovereign. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  the  government  which  once  has 
bowed  the  knee  to  force  must  expect  that  force  will  thenceforth 
be  its  master.  Within  four  years  the  Janissaries  revolted  twice 
again,  and  on  each  occasion  compelled  the  Sultan  to  depose  and 
change  his  Vizier.  In  1591  these  haughty  prcetorians  coerced  their 
sovereign  into  placing  on  the  vassal  throne  of  ^loldavia  the  com- 
petitor who  had  obtained  their  favor  by  bribes.  While  these  and 
many  other  tumults,  in  some  of  which  the  Spahis  and  Janissaries 
waged  a  civil  war  against  each  other  in  the  streets,  convulsed  the 
capital,  the  provinces  were  afflicted  by  the  rapacious  tyranny  of  their 
governors  and  the  other  officers  of  state,  and  by  its  natural  results. 
The  garrisons  of  Pesth  and  Tabriz  mutinied  on  account  of  their  pay 
being  kept  back.  The  warlike  tribes  of  the  Druses  in  Lebanon  took 
arms  against  their  provincial  oppressors.      The  revolt  of  Transyl- 


W4>  TURKEY 

1593-1595 

vania,  Moldavia,  and  Wallachia  was  a  still  more  formidable 
symptom  of  the  wretched  condition  of  the  empire.  The  risings  in 
these  provinces  were  encouraged  by  the  war  with  Austria,  which 
broke  out  in  1 593.  And  in  1 594  the  war  with  Persia  was  renewed, 
and  marked  by  little  success  on  the  Turkish  side. 

While  his  realm  was  in  this  distracted  state,  Sultan  Murad 
sickened  and  died  (January  16,  1595).  Weak  both  in  mind 
and  body,  he  had  long  been  perplexed  by  dreams  and  signs  which 
he  believed  to  be  forebodings  of  death.  On  the  morning  of  the  last 
day  of  his  life  he  had  gone  to  a  magnificent  kiosk  lately  built  by 
Sinan  Paslia  on  the  shore  of  the  Bosphorus,  which  commanded  an 
extensive  prospect,  and  he  lay  there  watching  the  ships  that  sailed 
to  and  from  the  Propontis  and  the  Euxine.  His  musicians,  as 
usual,  were  in  attendance,  and  they  played  an  air  which  recalled  to 
Murad's  memory  the  melancholy  words  of  the  song  to  which  it 
belonged.     He  murmured  to  himself  the  first  line : 

"  Come  and  keep  watch  by  me  to-night,  O  Death !  " 

And  it  chanced  that  at  that  very  time  two  Egyptian  galleys  saluted 
the  Porte,  and  the  concussion  caused  by  the  guns'  fire  shattered  the 
glazed  dome  of  the  kiosk.  As  the  fragments  fell  around  the 
Sultan  he  exclaimed,  "  At  another  time  the  salute  of  a  whole  fleet 
would  not  have  broken  that  glass ;  and  now  it  is  shivered  by  the 
noise  of  the  cannon  of  these  galleys.  I  see  the  fate  of  the  kiosk  of 
my  life."  Saying  so  he  wept  bitterly,  and  was  led  by  his  attendants 
back  to  his  palace,  where  he  expired  that  very  night. 

Mohammed  HI.,  who  now  succeeded  to  Murad,  was  the  last 
hereditary  prince  who  was  trusted  with  liberty  and  the  government 
of  provinces  during  his  predecessor's  lifetime.  Thenceforth  the 
Ottoman  princes  of  the  blood  royal  were  kept  secluded  and  immured 
in  a  particular  part  of  the  palace  called  the  Kaweh  (cage),  from 
which  they  passed  to  die  or  to  reign,  without  any  of  the  minor 
employments  of  the  state  being  placed  in  their  hands.  The  fear 
lest  they  should  head  revolts  was  the  cause  of  this  new  system,  the 
effect  of  which  on  the  character  and  capacity  of  the  rulers  of  Turkey 
was  inevitably  debasing  and  pernicious. 

Safiye,  now  Sultana  Valide,  ruled  generally  in  the  court  and 
councils  of  her  son,  Mohammed,  with  even  more  predominant  sway 
tlian  she  had  exercised  in  the  time  of  the  late  Sultan.  Mohammed 
was  a  weak-minded  prince,  but  capable  of  occasional  outbursts  of 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  205 

1595-1596 

energy,  or  rather  of  violence.  The  disasters  which  the  Turkish 
arms  were  now  experiencing-  in  Wallachia  and  Hungary  made  the 
Sultan's  best  statesmen  anxious  that  the  sovereign  should,  after  the 
manner  of  his  great  ancestors,  head  his  troops  in  person  and  en- 
deavor to  give  an  auspicious  change  to  the  fortune  of  the  war, 
Safiye,  who  feared  that  her  son  when  absent  from  Constantinople 
would  be  less  submissive  to  her  induence,  opposed  this  project,  and 
for  a  long  time  detained  the  Sultan  among  the  inglorious  pleasures 
of  his  seraglio,  while  the  imperialists,  under  the  Archduke  Maxi- 
milian and  the  Hungarian  Count  Pfalfy,  aided  by  the  revolted 
princes  of  the  Danubian  principalities,  dealt  defeat  and  discourage- 
ment among  the  Ottoman  ranks  and  wrung  numerous  fortresses 
and  districts  from  the  empire.  The  cities  of  Gran,  Wissgrad,  and 
Babocsa  had  fallen,  and  messengers  in  speedy  succession  announced 
the  loss  of  Ibrail,  Varna,  Kilic,  Ismail,  Silistria,  Rutschuk,  Buch- 
arest and  Akerman.  These  tidings  at  last  roused  the  monarch  in 
his  harem,  and  he  sent  for  the  Mufti,  who,  fortunately  for  Turkey, 
was  a  man  of  sense  and  patriotic  spirit.  Adopting  a  characteristic 
mode  of  advising  an  Ottoman  prince,  the  Mufti  took  an  opportunity 
of  placing  in  Mohammed's  hands  a  poem  of  Ali  Tchelabi,  one  of  the 
most  eminent  writers  of  the  time,  in  whose  verses  the  misfortunes 
of  the  empire  and  the  calamitous  progress  of  the  Hungarian  war 
were  painted  in  the  strongest  colors.  The  Sultan  was  sensibly 
affected  by  its  perusal,  and  ordered  that  the  solemn  service  of  prayer 
and  of  humiliation  should  be  read,  which  requires  the  Mussulman 
to  pray  and  weep  and  do  acts  of  contrition  and  penitence  for  three 
days.  The  Sultan  and  all  his  officers  of  state  and  all  the  Moham- 
medan population  of  the  city  attended  and  humbled  themselves  at 
these  prayers,  which  were  read  by  the  Sheik  Mohizedden  in  the 
place  of  the  Atmeidan.  beliind  the  arsenal.  Eight  days  afterward 
an  earthquake  shook  Constantinople  and  overthrew  many  towns 
and  villages  in  Anatolia.  The  consternation  and  excitement  of  the 
Ottomans  now  were  excessive.  All  classes  called  on  the  Padishah 
to  go  forth  to  the  holy  war  against  the  unbelievers,  and  the  formid- 
able Janissaries  refused  to  march  to  the  frontier  unless  the  Sultan 
marched  with  them.  The  historian  Seadedtlin.  who  held  the  high 
dignity  of  Khodja,  or  tutor  to  ^Mohammed,  the  Mufti,  and  the 
Grand  Vizier  urged  on  their  sovereign  that  the  only  hope  of  re- 
trieving the  prosperity  and  even  of  assuring  the  safety  of  the  empire 
lay  in  his  appearing  at  the  head  of  his  armies.    Their  exhortations, 


206  TURKEY 

1598 

aided  by  the  pressure  from  without,  prevailed  over  the  influence  of 
the  SuUana  Valide. 

Mohammed  III.  left  his  capital  for  the  frontier  in  the  June  of 
1596  with  pomp  and  state  which  recalled  to  some  spectators  the 
campaigns  of  the  great  Suleiman.  The  sultan's  resolution  to  head 
his  armies  had  revived  tlie  martial  spirit  of  the  Ottomans;  and  the 
display  of  the  sacred  standard  of  the  Prophet,  which  now  for  the 
first  time  was  unfurled  over  a  Turkish  army,  excited  still  more  the 
zeal  of  the  true  believers  to  combat  the  enemies  of  Islam.  This 
holy  relic  had  been  left  at  Damascus  by  Sultan  Selim  I.  after  he 
obtained  it  from  the  last  titular  Caliph  of  the  Abassides,  on  his  con- 
quest of  Egypt.  During  the  reign  of  Murad  III.  it  was  conveyed 
from  Damascus  to  Constantinople,  and  it  has  since  that  time  been 
preserved  by  the  Sultans  as  a  treasure  for  extreme  need,  to  be  dis- 
played only  on  great  emergencies,  when  it  has  become  necessary  to 
employ  some  extraordinary  means  to  rouse  the  military  spirit  of  the 
Ottomans,  or  to  recall  them  to  their  religious  allegiance  to  their 
Sultan,  as  the  Caliph  and  the  successor  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed, 
whose  holy  hands  once  bore  that  standard  in  battle. 

The  historian  Seadeddin  accompanied  his  imperial  pupil  in  this 
campaign,  and  his  presence  proved  of  value  for  the  purpose  of  gain- 
ing victories,  as  well  as  for  that  of  recording  them.  The  Grand 
Vizier  Ibrahim  Pasha,  Hassan  Sokolli  Pasha,  and  Cicala  Pasha 
were  the  principal  commanders  under  the  Sultan.  The  biography 
of  the  last-mentioned  Pasha  furnishes  so  striking  an  example  of  the 
career  of  a  renegade  in  that  age  that  it  may  claim  mention  in  these 
pages.  Cicala  Pasha  was  a  Genoese  renegade,  captured  in  boyhood 
by  the  Turks  and  brought  up  under  the  favor  of  the  Sultan  Sulei- 
man. He  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Persian  wars  and  in 
the  naval  wars  in  the  Mediterranean.  At  this  time  Cicala,  though 
disliked  by  the  Sultana  Valide,  was  high  in  the  Sultan's  favor. 

The  Archduke  Maximilian,  who  commanded  the  imperialists, 
retired  at  first  before  the  superior  numbers  of  the  great  Ottoman 
army,  and  the  Sultan  besieged  and  captured  Erlau.  The  imperial- 
ists now  having  effected  a  junction  with  the  Transylvanian  troops 
under  Prince  Sigismund,  advanced  again,  though  too  late  to  save 
Erlau,  and  on  October  23,  1596,  the  two  armies  were  in  presence  of 
each  other  on  the  marshy  plain  of  Cerestes,  through  which  the 
waters  of  the  Cincia  ooze  toward  the  river  Theiss. 

There  were  three  days  of  battle  at  Cerestes,      On  the  first  day 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  207 

1596 

part  of  the  Turkish  force  under  Djaffer  Pasha  passed  the  Cincia, 
and  after  fighting  bravely  against  superior  numbers  was  obhged 
to  retreat  with  the  loss  of  looo  Janissaries,  lOO  Spahis,  and  forty- 
three  cannon.  The  Sultan  now  wished  for  a  general  retreat  of  the 
army,  or  at  least  that  he  should  himself  retire.  A  council  of  war 
was  summoned  in  the  Ottoman  camp,  at  which  the  historian 
Seadeddin  was  present  and  advocated  vigorously  a  more  manly 
policy.  "  It  has  never  been  seen  or  heard  of,"  said  he,  "  that  a 
Padishah  of  the  Ottomans  turned  his  back  upon  the  enemy  with- 
out the  direst  necessity."  Some  of  those  present  recommended  that 
the  Pasha  Hassan  Sokolli  should  lead  the  troops  against  the  enemy. 
Seadeddin  answered,  "  This  is  no  affair  for  Pashas :  the  personal 
presence  of  the  Padishah  is  absolutely  indispensable  here."  It  was 
finally  resolved  to  fight;  and  the  Sultan  was  with  difficulty  per- 
suaded to  stay  with  the  troops.  On  October  24,  there  was  another 
action,  and  the  Turks  secured  some  passages  through  the  marsh. 
Each  side  now  concentrated  its  strength,  and  on  October  26,  the 
decisive  encounter  took  place.  At  first  the  Christians  seemed  com- 
pletely victorious.  They  drove  back  the  leading  divisions  of  the 
Turks  and  Tartars,  attacked  the  Ottoman  batteries  in  flank,  captured 
the  whole  of  the  guns,  forced  the  Janissaries  to  give  way,  and 
drove  the  Asiatic  feudal  cavalry  in  headlong  rout  from  the 
field.  The  Sultan,  who  beheld  the  engagement  from  an  elevated 
seat  on  a  camel's  back,  wished  to  fly,  but  Seadeddin  exhorted  him 
to  be  firm,  and  quoted  the  verse  of  the  Koran  that  says,  "  It  is 
patience  that  brings  victory,  and  joy  succeeds  to  sorrow."  Mo- 
hammed clasped  the  sacred  standard,  and  kept  his  station,  protected 
by  his  bodyguard  and  his  pages  from  the  victorious  imperialists, 
who  now  broke  their  ranks  and  rushed  to  plunder  the  Ottoman 
camp.  At  this  critical  moment,  Cicala,  who  had  hitherto  sat 
inactive  in  command  of  a  large  body  of  irregular  Turkish  cavalry, 
gave  the  word  to  his  men,  and  the  spurs  to  his  steed,  and  down  came 
the  wild  horsemen  galloping  over  friend  and  foe  and  sweeping  the 
panic-stricken  Christians  by  thousands  into  the  swamps  of  the 
Cincia.  Terror  and  flight  spread  tlirough  e\-ery  division  of  the 
imperialists,  and  in  less  than  half  an  hour  from  the  time  when 
Cicala  began  his  charge  ]\Iaximilian  and  Sigismund  were  flying  for 
their  lives,  without  a  single  Christian  regiment  keeping  their  ranks 
or  making  an  endeavor  to  rally  and  cover  the  retreat.  Fifty  thou- 
sand Germans  and  Transylvanians  perished  in  the  marshes  or  be- 


208  T  TI 11  K  E  Y 

1596-1599 

iieath  the  Ottoman  saber.  Ninety-five  cannons,  of  very  beautiful 
workmanship,  were  captured  by  the  Turks,  who  at  the  beginning  of 
the  battle  had  lost  all  their  own,  and  the  whole  camp,  treasure  of 
the  archduke,  and  all  his  material  of  war  were  among  the  fruits  of 
this  victory,  one  of  the  most  remarkable  that  the  Ottomans  ever 
obtained. 

The  principal  credit  of  the  day  was  fairly  ascribed  to  Seaded- 
din  and  Cicala.  Cicala  was  promoted  after  the  battle  to  the  rank 
of  Grand  Vizier,  but  was  speedily  deprived  of  it  by  the  jealous  inter- 
ference of  the  Sultana  Valide.  He  held  it,  however,  long  enough  to 
be  the  cause  of  infinite  evil  to  the  empire  by  his  ill-judged  and 
excessive  severity  to  the  troops,  that  had  given  way  at  the  beginning 
of  the  battle.  It  was  found  that  30,000  Ottoman  soldiers,  princi- 
pally belonging  to  the  Asiatic  feudal  force,  had  fled  before  the 
Giaours.  Cicala  stigmatized  them  as  Firaris,  or  runaways.  He 
ordered  that  their  pay  should  be  stopped  and  their  fiefs  forfeited. 
He  publicly  beheaded  many  of  these  unfortunate  soldiers  who  came 
into  his  power,  but  by  far  the  greater  number,  when  they  heard 
of  the  new  Vizier's  severity,  dispersed  and  returned  to  their  homes. 
The  attempts  made  to  apprehend  and  punish  them  there  naturally 
caused  armed  resistance ;  and  the  Firaris  of  Cerestes  were  among  the 
foremost  and  most  formidable  supporters  of  the  rebellion  which 
soon  afterward  broke  out  in  Asia  Minor  and  desolated  that  coun- 
try for  many  years. 

Mohammed  HI.  eagerly  returned  after  the  battle  to  Constanti- 
nople, to  receive  felicitations  and  adulation  for  his  victory,  and  to 
resume  his  usual  life  of  voluptuous  indolence.  The  war  in  Hungary 
was  prolonged  for  several  years,  until  the  Peace  of  Sitvatorok  in 
the  reign  of  Mohammed's  successor.  But  neither  the  imperialists 
nor  the  Turks  carried  on  operations  with  any  vigor  in  the  interme- 
diate campaigns;  and  the  chiefs  of  the  revolted  principalities  of 
Moldavia,  Wallachia,  and  Transylvania,  after  disputes  with  each 
other,  sought  and  obtained  terms  of  reconciliation  with  the  Porte. 

During  the  inglorious  remainder  of  the  reign  of  Mohammed 
III.  the  evils  of  military  insubordination  and  the  tyranny  of  the  pro- 
\incial  rulers  continued  to  increase.  In  1599  a  chief  of  the  military 
feudatories  in  Asia  Minor,  named  Abdul  Hamid,  but  better  known 
by  tlie  title  of  Karazaridji,  which  means  "  The  Black  Scribe,"  availed 
liimsclf  of  the  universal  disorder  and  discontent  to  organize  a  wide- 
-IMcad  revolt  against  the  P(jrtc,  and  to  assume  the  rank  of  an  inde- 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  209 

1600-1603 

pendent  prince.  He  formed  an  army  of  Kurds,  Turkomans,  and 
the  fugitive  Spahis  of  Cerestes;  and,  aided  by  his  brother,  Delhi 
Husein,  the  Governor  of  Bagdad,  he  gave  repeated  defeats  to  the 
Ottoman  armies  sent  against  him.  In  1601  the  Persian  monarch, 
Shah  Abbas,  took  advantage  of  the  weakness  of  the  ancient  enemy 
of  his  nation  to  make  war  upon  Turkey,  and  began  rapidly  to  re- 
cover the  provinces  which  Persia  had  lost  in  the  last  reign.  In  the 
June  of  1603  Sultan  Mohammed  put  to  death  his  eldest  son,  Mah- 
mud,  a  prince  of  high  abilities  and  courage,  and  of  whose  reign 
great  expectation  had  been  formed.  Mahmud  had  requested  his 
father  to  give  him  the  command  of  the  armies  employed  against 
the  rebels  in  Asia  Minor.  This  show  of  spirit  alarmed  the  weak 
and  jealous  mind  of  Mohammed,  and  on  being  informed  that  a  holy 
man  had  predicted  to  the  prince  that  a  new  Sultan  would  soon 
ascend  the  throne,  he  ordered  his  son  to  be  seized  and  strangled. 
The  Sultana  who  had  borne  the  prince  to  him  and  all  Mahmud's 
favorite  companions  were  at  the  same  time  thrown  into  prison,  and 
at  the  end  of  a  month  were  all  put  to  death.  Mohammed  III.  did 
not  long  survive  this  act  of  cruelty.  On  October  27,  a  dervish  met 
him  in  the  palace-gate  and  prophesied  to  him  that  in  fifty-five  days 
he  would  meet  with  some  great  calamity.  The  prediction  weighed 
heavily  on  the  superstitious  mind  of  the  sickly  voluptuary,  and,  like 
many  other  predictions  of  the  same  kind,  tended  powerfully  to  work- 
its  own  fulfillment.  On  the  fifty-fifth  day,  December  23,  1603. 
Mohammed  III.  died,  and  was  succeeded  by  Sultan  Ahmed  I.,  the 
elder  of  his  two  surviving  sons. 

Ahmed  I.  was  fourteen  years  of  age  when  he  commenced  his 
reign.  By  his  humanity,  or  the  humanity  of  his  councilors,  his 
brother,  Prince  Mustapha,  was  spared  from  being  put  to  death 
according  to  established  usage.  The  mental  imbecility  of  Prince 
Mustapha  may  also  have  been  a  reason  for  saving  his  life,  partly 
out  of  contempt  and  partly  out  of  the  superstitious  reverence  with 
which  all  lunatics  are  regarded  in  the  East.  In  the  beginning  of 
young  Ahmed's  reign  he  showed  some  flashes  of  imperious  decision 
which  might  have  been  thought  to  be  the  dawnings  of  a  vigorous 
and  successful  reign.  His  Grand  Vizier,  who  was  to  lead  a  fresh 
army  into  Hungary,  made  some  exorbitant  demands  on  the  treasury 
and  threatened  not  to  march  unless  they  were  complied  with. 
Ahmed  sent  him  the  laconic  and  effective  answer,  "  If  thou  vainest 
thy  liead  thou  wilt  niai-cli  at  once."      But  tlic  promise  cA  Ahmed's 


210  TURKEY 

1606 

boyhood  was  belied  by  weakness  and  selfishness  as  he  approached 
maturer  years. 

Negotiations  for  a  peace  between  Austria  and  the  Porte  had 
long  been  pending,  and  a  treaty  was  finally  concluded  on  Novem- 
ber II,  1606,  at  Sitvatorok.  No  change  of  importance  was 
made  in  the  territorial  possessions  of  either  party,  except  that  the 
Prince  of  Transylvania  was  admitted  as  party  to  the  treaty,  and 
that  province  became  to  some  extent,  though  not  entirely,  inde- 
pendent of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  But  the  Peace  of  Sitvatorok  is 
important  as  marking  an  era  in  the  diplomatic  relations  of  Turkey 
with  the  states  of  Christendom.  Hitherto  the  Ottoman  Sultans,  in 
their  pacifications  with  Christian  princes,  had  affected  to  grant  short 
truces  as  faAors  from  a  superior  to  inferiors.  They  generally  ex- 
acted annual  contributions  of  money,  which  Oriental  pride  con- 
sidered to  be  tributes ;  and  they  displayed,  both  in  the  style  of  their 
state  papers  and  by  the  low  rank  of  the  persons  employed  by  them 
to  conduct  the  negotiations,  the  most  haughty  and  offensive  arro- 
gance. But  at  Sitvatorok  the  Turks  acknowledged  and  observed 
the  general  principles  and  courtesies  of  international  law.  Their 
commissioners  had  full  powers  signed  by  the  Sultan  and  the  Grand 
Vizier,  and  they  gave  the  Austrian  sovereign  the  title  of  Padishah, 
or  Emperor,  instead  of  terming  him,  as  had  been  usual  with  their 
predecessors,  merely  "  the  King  of  Vienna."  -  The  peace  w^as  to  be 
a  permanent  one;  the  annual  payment  of  the  30,000  ducats  by 
Austria  to  the  Porte  was  abolished ;  presents  were  to  be  made  by 
the  Turks  to  the  imperialists,  as  well  as  by  the  imperialists  to  the 
Turks ;  and  in  future  all  ambassadors  sent  by  the  Sultan  to  Vienna 
were  not  to  be,  as  formerly,  chosen  from  among  the  menial  officers 
of  his  court  or  camp,  but  were  to  be  at  least  of  the  rank  of  Sanjak 
Beg. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  Ottoman  power  that  the  religious  dis- 
sensions in  Germany  soon  after  this  period  caused  the  outbreak  of 
tlie  great  war  which  devastated  that  country  for  thirty  years,  and 
kept  the  house  of  Austria  fully  occupied  in  struggling  for  empire 
and  safety  against  Bohemians,  Saxons,  Danes,  Swedes,  and  French, 
instead  of  availing  itself  of  the  weakness  of  the  Turks  and  enter- 
ing upon  a  career  of  conquest  along  the  Saave  and  the  Danube. 
The  Spanish  monarchy,  the  other  great  enemy  of  the  Porte,  after 

2  The   title   had   already   in   Suleiman's   time  been   given   to  the   King   of 
France. — Ed. 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  211 

1606-1617 

the  death  of  Philip  II.  decayed  even  more  rapidly  and  uniformly 
than  the  Turkish  Empire  after  the  death  of  Suleiman.  France 
and  England  were  friendly  toward  the  Turks,  and  even  if  they 
had  been  hostile,  were  too  much  engaged  each  with  its  own  domestic 
dissensions  during  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century  for  any 
formidable  projects  of  conquest  in  the  East.  Russia  had  declined 
during  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  and  she  was, 
long  after  his  death,  rent  by  revolts  and  civil  wars  which  were  termi- 
nated by  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Romanov  (1613)  ;  but  the 
reign  of  the  first  czar  of  that  dynasty  (161 3-1645)  was  fully  occu- 
pied with  endeavors  to  restore  the  Russian  nation  from  the  misery 
and  anarchy  into  which  it  had  fallen,  and  in  recovering  provinces 
which  had  been  seized  by  the  Swedes  and  Poles.  No  first-class 
European  power  was  in  a  condition  to  attack  Turkey  during  that 
crisis  of  her  extreme  misery  and  feebleness,  which  lasted  through 
the  first  thirty  years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  which  was  checked 
by  the  stern  hand  of  Murad  IV.  during  the  last  seven  years  of  his 
reign,  but  was  renewed  under  the  reigns  of  his  imbecile  successors, 
until  the  ministry  of  the  first  Kiuprili  in  1656.  The  Poles  and  the 
Venetians  were  the  chief  European  foes  of  Turkey  throughout  this 
time,  Poland  was  too  much  torn  by  domestic  faction  to  accomplish 
aught  worthy  of  the  chivalrous  valor  of  her  armies ;  and  Venice, 
never  a  sufficient  adversary  to  cope  single-handed  with  a  great 
empire,  was  in  a  state  of  skillfully  disguised  but  incurable  and 
increasing  decrepitude,  Persia  was  the  most  dangerous  foreign 
enemy  of  Turkey  during  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century; 
but  though  the  Asiatic  possessions  of  the  Porte  beyond  the  Taurus 
were  often  in  imminent  peril,  there  was  little  risk  of  Persian  armies 
advancing  so  far  westward  as  to  strike  at  the  vital  parts  of  the 
Ottoman  dominions. 

Ahmed  I,  reigned  for  eleven  years  after  the  peace  of  Sitvatorok. 
During  this  time  his  Grand  Vizier,  Murad,  gained  advantages  over 
the  rebels  in  xA.sia  Minor  which  partially  suppressed  the  spirit  of 
revolt  in  that  quarter.  The  war  with  Persia  was  continued,  but 
almost  uniformly  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  Turks ;  and  the  weak- 
ness of  the  empire  was  signally  proved  by  the  ravages  which  the 
fleets  of  the  Cossacks  perpetrated  with  impunity  along  the  southern 
coasts  of  the  Black  Sea.  In  161 3  a  flotilla  of  these  marauders  sur- 
prised the  city  of  Sinope,  which  is  described  as  liaving  been  then 
one  of  the  richest  and  best  fortified  ports  of  Asia  Minor. 


212  TURKEY 

1617-1621 

Sultan  Ahmed  died  November  22,  1617.^  He  left  seven 
sons,  three  of  whom,  in  course  of  time,  ascended  the  throne, 
but  his  immediate  successor  was  his  brother  Mustapha.  Hitherto 
there  had  been  an  uninterrupted  transmission  of  the  empire  from 
father  to  son  for  fourteen  generations.  According  to  Von  Ham- 
mer, the  law  of  succession  which  gives  the  throne  to  the  elder  sur- 
viving male  relation  of  the  deceased  sovereign  had  been  adopted  by 
the  house  of  Othman  from  the  house  of  Genghis  Khan,  but  so 
long  as  the  practice  of  royal  fratricide  continued  it  was  impossible 
for  any  dispute  to  arise  between  the  son  of  a  Sultan  and  that  son's 
uncle.  In  consequence  of  the  life  of  his  brother  Mustapha  having 
been  spared  by  Ahmed  I.,  that  prince  now  became  Sultan,  to  the 
temporary  exclusion  of  his  young  nephew  Prince  Othman.  But 
the  idiocy  of  A'lustapha  as  soon  as  he  was  drawn  from  his  place 
of  confinement  and  enthroned  was  so  apparent  that  in  less  than 
three  months  the  high  ofificers  of  state  concurred  in  deposing  him, 
and  summoning  Prince  Othman,  then  aged  fourteen,  to  reign  in  his 
stead  (February  26,  16 18). 

The  short  and  unhappy  reign  of  Othman  H,  was  marked  by  the 
signature  of  a  peace  with  Persia,  on  conditions  agreed  to  during 
the  preceding  reign,  and  rendered  necessary  by  the  repeated  defeats 
of  the  Turks.  The  Ottomans  restored  all  the  conquests  that  had 
been  made  during  the  reigns  of  Murad  HI.  and  Mohammed  HI. 
and  the  eastern  boundary  of  the  empire  receded  to  its  line  in  the 
reign  of  Selim  II.  Relieved  from  the  burden  of  the  Persian  war, 
Othman  devoted  all  his  thoughts  to  the  overthrow  of  his  domestic 
enemies,  the  Janissaries  and  Spahis,  whom  he  not  unjustly  regarded 
as  the  chief  curses  of  the  empire,  of  which  they  had  foiTnerly  been 
the  chief  support.  The  Janissaries,  in  particular,  were  now  re- 
garded as  the  tyrants  over  both  sovereign  and  people,  and  the  long 
feud  between  the  throne  and  the  barrack  of  the  troops  of  Hadji 
Bektash  now  commenced,  which  was  only  terminated  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  by  the  ruthless  energy  of  Mahmud  H.  Othman  made 
war  on  Poland  in  162 1,  chiefly  with  the  view  of  weakening  the 
Jam'ssary  regiments  by  loss  in  battle  and  the  hardships  of  the  cam- 
[)aign.     The  losses  wliich  the  whole  army  sustained  in  that  war, 

2  The  second  year  of  the  reign  of  Ahmed  I.  is  marked  by  the  Turkish  writers 
as  the  date  of  the  introduction  of  tobacco  into  the  empire.  The  Ottomans  became 
such  enthusiastic  and  inveterate  smokers  that  within  fifty  years  a  pipe  was 
looked  on  as  the  national  emblem  of  a  Turk.  The  use  of  coffee  had  been  intro- 
duced into  Constantinople  in  the  reigii  of  the  great  Suleiman. 


DECAY     OF     EMPIRE  n$ 

1621-1622 

and  the  calamitous  retreat  with  which  the  operations  of  the  Sultan 
(though  partiall}'  victorious)  were  concluded,  made  Othman  un- 
popular with  all  ranks.  And  by  ill-considered  changes  in  laws  and 
customs,  by  personal  affronts  to  leading  statesmen,  and  by  the  exer- 
cise of  vexatious  severity  in  trifling  regulations  of  police  he  alien- 
ated all  classes  of  his  subjects  from  his  throne.  In  the  spring  of 
1622  he  announced  an  intention  of  performing  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca.  It  was  well  known  that  his  real  design  was  to  proceed  to 
Damascus  and  place  himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  Kurds  and 
other  troops,  which  his  favorite  Grand  Vizier,  Dilawer  Pasha,  was 
to  collect  near  that  city.  With  this  army,  when  disciplined  on  a 
new  model,  the  Sultan  was  to  march  upon  Constantinople,  destroy 
the  Janissaries  and  Spahis,  and  completely  reorganize  the  govern- 
ment. Sir  Thomas  Roe,  the  English  ambassador  then  resident  at  the 
Turkish  capital,  wdiose  letters  graphically  describe  the  tragical  ca- 
reer of  Othman,  says  of  this  scheme  that,  "  Certainly  this  was  a 
brave  and  well-grounded  design,  and  of  great  consequence  for  the 
recovery  of  this  decayed  empire,  languishing  under  the  insolence 
of  lazy  slaves,  if  God  had  not  destroyed  it."  But,  in  truth,  Othman 
utterly  lacked  the  secrecy  and  the  vigor  with  which  alone  actions 
of  such  depth  and  danger  can  be  performed.  When  the  Janissaries 
rose  in  furious  tumult  (-May,  1622)  to  forbid  the  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca  and  to  demand  the  heads  of  Othman's  ministers,  the  Sultan 
had  neither  troops  ready  to  defend  him  nor  was  there  any  party 
in  his  favor  among  the  people  to  whom  he  could  appeal.  Instigated 
by  the  traitor  Daud  Pasha,  who  hated  Othman  for  having  raised  a 
rival  to  the  Grand  Vizierate,  and  by  the  mother  of  Sultan  Mustapha, 
who  knew^  that,  if  this  revolt  were  quelled,  Othman  would  seek  to 
secure  himself  by  putting  all  his  kin  to  death,  the  insurgent  soldiery 
proceeded  from  violence  against  the  ministers  to  an  attack  upon  the 
person  of  the  Sultan,  which  had  hitherto  been  held  sacred  amid 
the  wildest  commotions.  Othman  was  dragged  off  to  the  Seven 
Towers,  while  the  lunatic  Mustapha  was  a  second  time  carried 
from  his  cell  and  installed  on  the  throne.  Daud  Pasha,  now  Grand 
Vizier,  was  determined  not  to  leave  his  traitorous  enterprise  in- 
complete, and  with  three  comrades  he  proceeded  to  Othman's  prison 
and  strangled  him,  with  circumstances  of  gross  and  insolent  cruelty. 
The  atrocity  of  tliis  murder  before  long  caused  remorse  among 
the  Janissaries  themselves.  Among  the  few  glimmerings  of  intel- 
lect which  Sullan  Ahislapha  showed  during  his  second  reign  were 


214  TURKEY 


1623 


an  expression  of  grief  for  the  death  of  Othman,  and  a  hattisherif 
commanding-  that  his  murderers  should  be  punished.  Generally, 
Mustapha  continued  to  be  as  incapable  of  governing  an  empire,  or 
of  common  self-government,  as  he  had  been  found  at  his  first  ac- 
cession. His  mother,  the  Sultana  Valide,  exercised  the  principal 
power  in  his  name,  and  the  high  offices  of  state  were  intrigued  or 
fought  for  by  competitors  who  relied  on  the  bought  swords  of  the 
Janissaries  and  Spahis  as  their  best  means  of  promotion.  So  fear- 
ful at  length  became  the  anarchy  and  misery  at  Constantinople  that 
even  the  very  soldiers  were  touched  by  it.  Some  instinctive  spirit 
of  military  discipline  still  survived  among  them,  and  their  proud 
attachment  to  the  Ottoman  Empire,  which  the  valor  of  their  pre- 
decessors had  raised  to  such  power  and  splendor,  had  not  become 
wholly  inoperative.  They  assented  to  the  urgent  entreaties  of  the 
chief  ministers  that  they  would  forego  their  customary  donative 
if  a  new  Sultan  was  invested  with  power;  and  in  August,  1623,  the 
lunatic  Mustapha  was  a  second  time  deposed,  and  Prince  Murad, 
the  elder  surviving  brother  of  Sultan  Othman,  a  child  of  only  eleven 
years  of  age,  was  placed  on  the  throne.  Mustapha's  second  reign 
had  lasted  little  more  than  a  year,  but  it  had  been  productive  of 
infinite  misery  to  the  empire.  The  Persian  war  had  been  renewed. 
Bagdad  and  Bassora  fell  into  the  hands  of  enemies.  All  Asia 
Minor  was  desolated  by  the  revolt  of  Abaza,  who  had  been  governor 
of  Merasch,  and  who  was  said  to  have  aided  the  Sultan  Othman  in 
concerting  that  sovereign's  project  for  destroying  the  Janissaries. 
It  is  certain  that  after  Othman's  murder  Abaza  proclaimed  himself 
as  that  prince's  avenger  and  the  sworn  foe  of  the  Janissaries,  whom 
he  pursued  with  implacable  ferocity.  In  the  general  dissolution  of 
all  bonds  of  government,  and  in  the  absence  of  all  protection  to 
industry  or  property,  the  empire  seemed  to  be  sinking  into  the  mere 
state  of  a  wilderness  of  beasts  of  prey.-'^  The  misery  and  confusion 
of  the  empire  is  most  strikingly  testified  to  by  the  English  ambas- 
sador, Sir  Thomas  Roe,  who  in  speaking  of  the  decline  of  the  Turk- 
isli  power  uses  the  metaphor  now  w^ell-worn  of  the  sick  man.  He 
says :  "  It  has  become,  like  an  old  body,  crazed  through  many  vices 
which  remain  when  the  youth  and  strength  is  decayed." 

3  "  Sir  Thomas  Roc's  Embassy,"  p.  22. 


Chapter    XIV 

REVIVAL   OF   THE    EMPIRE   UNDER   MURAD    IV. 

I 623- I 640 

MURAD  IV.,  at  the  time  of  his  accession  (September  10, 
1623),  was  under  twelve  years  of  age.  But  even  thus 
early  he  gave  indications  of  a  resolute  and  vengeful 
character,  and  showed  that  a  prince  animated  by  the  spirit  of  the 
first  Selim  was  once  more  on  the  Ottoman  throne.  The  Turkish 
historian,  Evliya,  relates  of  him :  *'  When  Su4tan  Murad  entered 
the  treasury  after  his  accession,  my  father,  Dervish  Mohammed, 
was  with  him.  There  were  no  gold  or  silver  vessels  remaining — 
only  30,000  piastres  in  money,  and  some  coral  and  porcelain  in 
chests.  '  Inshallah '  (please  God),  said  the  Sultan,  after  pros- 
trating himself  in  prayer,  '  I  will  replenish  this  treasury  fifty-fold 
with  the  property  of  those  who  have  plundered  it.'  " 

The  young  Sultan  during  the  first  year  of  his  reign  acted 
principally  under  the  directions  of  his  mother,  who,  providentially 
for  the  Ottoman  Empire,  was  a  woman  of  remarkable  talent  and 
energy,  which  were  taxed  to  the  uttermost  to  meet  the  dangers  and 
disasters  that  clouded  round  the  dawn  of  her  child's  sovereignty. 
From  every  part  of  the  empire  messengers  arrived  with  evil  tidings. 
The  Persians  were  victorious  on  the  frontier.  The  rebel  Abaza  was 
lord  and  tyrant  over  Asia  Minor.  The  tribes  of  the  Lebanon  were 
in  open  insurrection.  The  governors  of  Egypt  and  other  provinces 
were  wavering  in  their  allegiance.  The  Barbaresque  regencies  as- 
sumed the  station  of  independent  powers,  and  made  treaties  with 
European  nations  on  their  own  account.  The  fleets  of  the  Cossack 
marauders  not  only  continued  their  depredations  along  the  Black 
Sea,  but  even  appeared  in  the  Bosphorus  and  plundered  the  imme- 
diate vicinity  of  the  capital.  In  Constantinople  itself  there  was  an 
empty  treasury,  a  dismantled  arsenal,  a  debased  coinage,  exhausted 
magazines,  a  starving  population,  and  a  licentious  soldiery.  Yet  the 
semblance  of  authority  was  preserved,  and  by  degrees  some  of  its 
substance  was  recovered  by  those  who  ruled  in  the  young  prince's 

215 


216  TURKEY 

1623-1632 

name ;  and,  though  amid  tumult  and  bloodshed,  and  daily  peril  to 
both  throne  and  life,  young  Murad,  observing  all  things,  forgetting 
nothing,  and  forgiving  nothing,  grew  up  toward  man's  estate. 

There  is  a  wearisome  monotony  in  the  oft-repeated  tale  of 
military  insurrections,  but  the  formidable  mutiny  of  the  Spahis, 
which  convulsed  Constantinople  in  the  ninth  year  of  Murad's  reign, 
deserves  notice  on  account  of  the  traits  of  the  Turkish  character 
which  its  chief  hero  and  victim  remarkably  displayed;  and  also 
because  it  explains  and  partly  palliates  the  hard-heartedness  which 
grew  upon  Murad,  and  the  almost  wolfish  appetitie  for  bloodshed 
which  was  shown  by  him  in  the  remainder  of  his  reign.  In  the 
beginning  of  that  year  a  large  number  of  mutinous  Spahis,  who 
had  disgraced  themselves  by  gross  misconduct  in  the  late  unsuccess- 
ful campaign  against  Bagdad,  had  straggled  to  Constantinople  and 
joined  the  European  Spahis  already  collected  in  that  capital.  They 
were  secretly  instigated  by  Redjib  Pasha,  who  wished  by  their  means 
to  effect  the  ruin  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Hafiz,  a  gallant  though  not 
fortunate  general,  to  whom  the  young  Sultan  was  much  attached, 
and  who  had  interchanged  poetical  communications  with  his  sov- 
reign  when  employed  against  the  Persians.  The  Spahis  gathered 
together  in  the  hippodrome  on  three  successive  days  (February, 
1632),  and  called  for  the  heads  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Hafiz,  the 
]\Iufti  Jahia,  the  Defterdar  Mustapha,  and  other  favorites  of  the 
Sultan,  seventeen  in  all.  The  shops  were  closed,  and  the  city  and 
the  Serail  were  in  terror.  On  the  second  day  the  mutineers  came 
to  the  gate  of  the  palace,  but  withdrew  on  being  promised  that  they 
should  have  redress  on  the  morrow.  On  the  third  day,  when  the 
morning  broke,  the  outer  court  of  the  Seraglio  was  filled  with 
raging  rebels.  As  the  Grand  Vizier  Hafiz  was  on  his  way  thither 
to  attend  the  Divan,  he  received  a  message  from  a  friend,  who 
warned  him  to  conceal  himself  until  the  crowd  had  dispersed.  Plafiz 
answered  with  a  smile,  "  I  have  already  this  day  seen  my  fate  in  a 
dream ;  I  am  not  afraid  to  die."  As  he  rode  into  the  Seraglio  the 
multitude  made  a  lane  for  him,  as  if  out  of  respect;  but  as  he  passed 
along  they  cast  stones  at  him ;  he  was  struck  from  his  horse  and 
borne  by  his  attendants  into  the  inner  part  of  the  palace.  One  of 
his  followers  was  murdered  and  one  grievously  wounded  by  the 
Spahis.  The  Sulian  ordered  Hafiz  to  make  his  escape,  and  the 
Grand  Vizier  took  a  boat  at  the  water-gate  of  the  Serail  and  crossed 
over  to  Scutari.     Meanwhile  the  rebels  forced  their  wav  into  the 


MURAD     IV  til 

1632 

second  court  of  the  Seraglio,  which  was  the  usual  hall  of  the  Divan, 
and  they  clamored  for  the  Sultan  to  come  forth  and  hold  a  Divan 
among  them.  The  Sultan  appeared  and  held  a  Divan  standing. 
He  spoke  to  the  mutineers,  "What  is  your  will,  my  servants?" 
Loudly  and  insolently  they  answered,  "  Give  us  the  seventeen  heads. 
Give  these  men  up  to  us,  that  we  may  tear  them  in  pieces,  or  it  shall 
fare  worse  with  thee."  They  pressed  close  upon  the  Sultan,  and 
were  about  to  lay  hands  on  him.  "You  give  no  hearing  to  my 
words ;  why  have  you  called  me  hither  ?  "  said  Murad.  He  drew 
back,  surrounded  by  his  pages,  into  the  inner  court.  The  rebels 
came  after  him  like  a  raging  flood.  Fortunately  the  pages  barred 
the  gate.  But  the  alarm  and  the  outcry  became  the  greater.  They 
shouted  aloud,  "  The  seventeen  heads,  or  abdicate." 

Red  jib  Pasha,  the  secret  promoter  of  the  whole  tumult,  now 
approached  the  young  Sultan,  and  urged  on  him  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  still  the  tumult  by  granting  what  was  demanded.  He  said 
that  it  had  become  a  custom  for  the  chiefs  to  be  given  up  to  the 
soldiery.  "  The  Unchained  Slave  must  take  what  he  pleases ;  better 
the  head  of  the  Vizier  than  that  of  the  Sultan."  Murad  sorrowfully 
gave  way  and  sent  a  summons  to  Hafiz  to  return  and  die.  The 
Vizier  hesitated  not  and  as  he  came  back  the  Sultan  met  him  at 
the  water-gate.  The  gate  of  the  inner  court  was  then  opened.  The 
Sultan  ascended  the  throne  of  state,  and  four  deputies  from  the 
insurgents,  two  Spahis  and  two  Janissaries,  came  before  him.  He 
implored  them  not  to  profane  the  honor  of  the  Caliphate,  but  he 
pleaded  in  vain;  the  cry  was  still  "  The  seventeen  heads."  Mean- 
while Hafiz  Pasha  had  made  the  ablution  necessary  to  death,  which 
the  Mohammedan  law  requires,  and  he  now  stood  forth  and  ad- 
dressed Murad.  "  My  Padishah,"  said  he,  "  let  a  thousand  slaves, 
such  as  Hafiz,  perish  for  thy  sake.  I  only  entreat  that  thou  do  not 
thyself  put  me  to  death,  but  give  me  up  to  these  men,  that  I  may 
die  a  martyr,  and  that  my  innocent  blood  may  come  upon  their 
heads.  Let  my  body  be  buried  at  Scutari."  He  then  kissed  the 
earth,  and  exclaimed,  "  In  the  name  of  God,  the  All-merciful,  the 
All-good.  There  is  no  power  or  might  save  with  God,  the  most 
High,  the  Almighty.  His  we  are,  and  unto  Him  we  return."  Hafiz 
then  strode  forth  a  hero  into  the  fatal  court.  The  Sultan  sobbed 
aloud,  the  pages  wept  bitterly,  the  Viziers  gazed  with  tearful  eyes. 
The  rebels  rushed  to  meet  him  as  he  advanced.  To  sell  his  life  as 
a  martyr,  he  struck  tlie  foremost  to  the  ground  with  a  well-aimed 


218  TURKEY 

1632 

buffet,  on  which  the  rest  sprang  on  him  with  their  daggers  and 
pierced  him  with  seventeen  mortal  wounds.  A  Janissary  knelt  on 
his  breast  and  struck  off  his  head.  The  pages  of  the  Seraglio  came 
forward  and  spread  a  robe  over  the  corpse.  Then  said  the  Sultan, 
"  God's  will  be  done !  But  in  His  appointed  time  ye  shall  meet  with 
vengeance,  ye  men  of  blood,  who  have  neither  the  fear  of  God 
before  your  eyes  nor  respect  for  the  law  of  the  Prophet."  The 
threat  was  little  heeded  at  the  time,  but  it  was  uttered  by  one  who 
never  menaced  in  vain. 

Within  two  months  after  this  scene  fresh  victims  had  fallen 
before  the  bloodthirsty  rabble  that  now  disgraced  the  name  of 
Turkish  troops.  The  deposition  of  Murad  was  openly  discussed 
in  their  barracks,  and  the  young  Sultan  saw  that  the  terrible  alter- 
native, "  Kill,  or  be  killed,"  was  no  longer  to  be  evaded.  Some 
better  spirits  in  the  army,  shamed  and  heartsick  at  the  spirit  of 
brigandage  that  was  so  insolently  dominant  over  court  and  camp, 
placed  their  swords  at  their  sovereign's  disposal ;  and  a  small  but 
brave  force,  that  could  be  relied  on  in  the  hour  of  need,  was  grad- 
ually and  quietly  organized.  The  dissensions  also  among  the  mutin- 
ous troops  themselves,  and  especially  the  ancient  jealousy  between 
the  Spahis  and  the  Janissaries,  offered  means  for  repressing  them  all, 
of  which  Murad  availed  himself  with  boldness  and  skill.  His  first 
act  was  to  put  the  arch-traitor,  Red  jib  Pasha,  suddenly  and  secretly 
to  death.  He  then  proceeded  to  the  more  difficult  one  of  reducing  the 
army  to  submission.  The  was  done  on  May  29,  1632,  the  day  on 
which  the  Sultan  emancipated  himself  from  his  military  tyrants, 
and  commenced  also  his  own  reign  of  terror.  Murad  held  a  pub- 
lic Divan  on  the  shore  of  the  sea  near  the  Kiosk  of  Sinan.  The 
Mufti,  the  Viziers,  the  chief  members  of  the  Ulema  were  there, 
and  the  two  military  chiefs,  who  had  devoted  themselves  to  the 
cause  of  the  Sultan  against  the  mutinous  troops,  Kcese  Mohammed 
and  Rum  Mohammed.  Six  squadrons  of  horseguards,  whose 
loyalty  could  be  trusted,  were  also  in  attendance  and  ready  for 
immediate  action.  Murad  seated  himself  on  tlT£  throne  and  sent  a 
message  to  the  Spahis,  who  were  assembled  in  the  hippodrome, 
requiring  the  attendance  of  a  deputation  of  their  officers.  Murad 
then  summoned  the  Janissaries  before  him  and  addressed  them  as 
faithful  troops  who  were  enemies  to  the  rebels  in  the  other  corps. 
The  Janissaries  shouted  out  that  the  Padishah's  enemies  were  their 
enemies  also,  and  took  with  zealous  readiness  an  oath  of  implicit 


MURAD     IV  219 

1632 

obedience,  which  was  suggested  at  the  moment.  Then  all  present, 
the  Sultan,  the  Viziers,  the  Mufti,  and  the  chief  officers,  signed  a 
written  manifesto,  by  which  they  bound  themselves  to  suppress 
abuses  and  maintain  public  order,  under  the  penalty  of  bringing  on 
their  heads  the  curses  of  God,  of  the  Prophet,  of  all  angels,  and 
of  all  true  believers. 

Murad  had  need  of  acts  as  well  as  of  words,  and  the  work  of 
death  speedily  began.  Energetic  and  trusty  emissaries  were  sent 
through  Constantinople,  who  slew  the  leaders  of  the  late  insurrec- 
tion, and  all  whom  Murad  marked  for  destruction.  The  troops,  de- 
prived of  their  chiefs  and  suspicious  of  each  other,  trembled  and 
obeyed.  The  same  measures  were  taken  in  the  provinces,  and  for 
many  months  the  sword  and  the  bowstring  were  incessantly  active. 
But  it  was  in  the  capital,  and  under  Murad's  own  eye,  that  the 
revenge  of  royalty  for  its  long  humiliation  reaped  the  bloodiest  har- 
vest. Every  morning  the  Bosphorus  threw  up  on  its  shores  the 
corpses  of  those  who  had  been  executed  during  the  preceding  night, 
and  in  them  the  anxious  spectators  recognized  Janissaries  and 
Spahis  whom  they  had  lately  seen  parading  the  streets  in  all  the 
haughtiness  of  military  license.  The  personal  appearance  and  cour- 
age of  Murad,  his  bold  and  martial  demeanor,  confirmed  the  respect 
and  awe  which  this  strenuous  ferocity  inspired.  He  was  in  the 
twentieth  year  of  his  age,  and  though  but  little  above  the  middle 
stature,  his  bodily  frame  united  strength  and  activity  in  a  remark- 
able degree.  His  features  were  regular  and  handsome.  His 
aquiline  nose,  and  the  jet-black  beard  which  had  begun  to  grace  his 
chin,  gave  dignity  to  his  aspect ;  but  the  imperious  luster  of  his  full 
dark  eyes  was  marred  by  a  habitual  frown,  which,  however, 
suited  well  the  sternness  of  his  character.  Every  day  he  displayed 
his  horsemanship  in  the  hippodrome;  and  he  won  the  involuntary 
admiration  of  the  soldiery  by  his  strength  and  skill  as  a  cavalier 
and  swordsman,  and  by  his  unrivaled  force  and  dexterity  in  the 
use  of  the  bow.  He  patrolled  the  streets  in  disguise  at  night, 
and  often,  with  his  own  hand,  struck  dead  the  offenders  against  his 
numerous  edicts  in  matters  of  police.  If  any  menacing  assemblage 
began  to  form  in  any  of  the  streets,  the  Sultan  received  speedy 
tidings  from  his  numerous  spies;  and  before  revolt  could  be  ma- 
tured, Murad  was  on  the  spot,  well  armed,  and  with  a  trusty  guard 
of  choice  troops.  He  rode  fearlessly  in  among  the  groups  of  Spahis 
or  Janissaries,  who  slunk  in  savage  silence  from  before  their  Sultan, 


220  TURKEY 

1630-1637 

each  dreading  lest  that  keen  eye  should  recognize  and  mark  him, 
and  that  unforgiving  lip  pronounce  his  doom. 

The  insurrection  in  Asia  Minor  had  been  quelled  in  1630  by 
the  defeat  and  submission  of  Abaza,  whom  Murad  had  spared, 
principally  out  of  sympathy  with  his  hatred  toward  the  Janissaries, 
and  had  made  Pasha  of  Bosnia.  He  now  employed  that  able  and 
ruthless  chief  in  Constantinople,  and  appointed  him  Aga  of  his  old 
enemies,  the  Janissaries.  Abaza  served  his  stern  master  well  in 
that  perilous  station;  but  he  at  last  incurred  the  displeasure  of 
Murad,  and  was  executed  in  1634.  The  habit  of  bloodshedding 
had  now  grown  into  a  second  nature  with  the  Sultan.  All  faults, 
small  or  great,  were  visited  by  him  with  the  same  short,  sharp,  and 
final  sentence;  and  the  least  shade  of  suspicion  that  crossed  his 
restless  mind  was  sufificient  to  ensure  its  victim's  doom.  He  struck 
before  he  censured,  and  at  last  the  terror  with  which  he  was  re- 
garded was  so  general  and  profound  that  men  who  were  summoned 
to  the  Sultan's  presence  commonly  made  the  death-ablution  before 
they  entered  the  palace. 

In  the  last  years  of  Murad's  life  his  ferocity  of  temper  was 
fearfully  aggravated  by  the  habits  of  intoxication  which  he  ac- 
quired. In  one  of  his  nocturnal  perambulations  of  the  capital  he 
met  a  drunkard  named  Mustapha  Bekir,  who  entered  into  conver- 
sation with  him,  and  boasted  that  he  possessed  that  which  would 
purchase  all  Constantinople,  and  "  the  son  of  a  slave  ''  himself. 
("  The  son  of  a  slave  ''  is  a  term  by  which  the  Turkish  people  often 
speak  of  the  Sultan.)  In  the  morning  Murad  sent  for  the  man  and 
reminded  him  of  his  words.  Nothing  daunted,  Bekir  drew  a  flask 
of  wine  from  his  robe  and  held  it  out  to  the  Sultan,  saying :  "  Here 
is  the  liquid  gold,  which  outweighs  all  the  treasures  of  the  universe, 
which  makes  a  beggar  more  glorious  than  a  king,  and  turns  the 
mendicant  Fakir  into  a  horned  Alexander."  Struck  with  the  con- 
fidence and  joyous  spirit  of  the  bold  bacchanal.  Murad  drained  the 
flask,  and  thenceforth  Alustapha  Bekir  and  the  Sultan  were  boon 
companions.  When  the  plague  was  in  1637  carrying  off  500  victims 
daily  at  Constantinople,  Murad  often  passed  his  nights  in  revels 
with  his  favorite.  "  This  summer,"  he  said,  "  God  is  punishing  the 
rogues.     Perhaps  by  winter  Hie  will  come  to  the  honest  men." 

Never,  however,  did  Murad  wholly  lose  in  habits  of  indulgence 
the  vij^'or  of  either  mind  or  body.  When  civil  or  military  duty 
required  his  vigilance,  none  could  surpass  him  in  austere  abstemi- 


M  U  R  A  D     I  V  221 

1630-1638 

ousness  or  in  the  capacity  for  labor.  And,  with  all  his  misdeeds, 
he  saved  his  country.  He  tolerated  no  crimes  but  his  own.  The 
worst  of  evils,  the  sway  of  petty  local  tryants,  ceased  under  his 
dominion.  He  was  unremittingly  and  unrelentingly  watchful  in 
visiting  the  offenses  of  all  who  were  in  authority  under  him,  as  well 
as  those  of  the  mass  of  his  subjects ;  and  the  worst  tyranny  of  the 
single  despot  was  a  far  less  grievous  curse  to  the  empire  than  had 
been  the  military  anarchy  which  he  quelled.  Order  and  subordina- 
tion were  restored  under  his  iron  sway.  There  was  discipline  in 
the  camps ;  there  was  pure  justice  on  the  tribunals.  The  revenues 
were  fairly  raised  and  honestly  administered.  The  abuses  of  the 
feudal  system  of  the  Ziamets  and  Timars  were  extirpated;  and  if 
Murad  was  dreaded  at  home,  he  made  himself  still  more  feared  by 
the  foe  abroad. 

It  was  at  first  highly  perilous  for  him  to  leave  the  central  seat 
of  empire.  He  commenced  an  expedition  into  the  troubled  parts 
of  his  Asiatic  dominions  in  the  end  of  the  year  1633 ;  but  when 
he  had  marched  a  little  beyond  Nicomedia  he  hanged  the  chief  judge 
of  that  city  because  he  found  the  roads  in  bad  repair.  This  excited 
great  indignation  among  the  Ulema,  and  the  leaders  of  that  for- 
midable body  began  to  express  sentiments  little  favorable  to  the 
Sultan's  authority.  W^arned  by  his  mother,  tlie  Sultana  Valide, 
of  these  discontents,  Alurad  returned  suddenly  to  Constantinople 
and  put  the  chief  ^lufti  to  death.  This  is  said  to  be  a  solitary 
instance  of  the  death  of  a  Mufti  by  a  Sultan's  order.  It  effectually 
curbed  the  tongues  and  pens  of  the  men  of  tlie  law  during  the 
remainder  of  ]\lurad"s  reign.  In  1638  he  made  his  final  and 
greatest  expedition  against  the  Persians,  to  reannex  to  the  Otto- 
man Empire  the  great  city  of  Bagdad,  which  had  been  in  the  power 
of  those  enemies  of  tlie  lnjiise  of  Othman  and  of  the  Sunnite  creed 
for  fifteen  years,  and  had  been  repeatedly  besieged  in  vain  by 
Turkisli  armies.  There  is  a  tradition  in  the  East  that  Bagdad, 
the  ancient  city  of  the  Caliphate,  can  only  be  taken  by  a  sovereign 
in  person.  The  Great  Suleiman  had  first  won  it  for  Turkey;  and 
now,  at  tlie  end  of  a  century  after  that  conquest,  Murad  IV.  pre- 
pared his  armies  lor  its  recovery.  The  imperial  standard  of  the 
Seven  Horsetails  was  i)lantcd  on  the  heights  of  Scutari  on  March 
9,  1638.  and  a  week  afterward  Murad  joined  the  army.  A  proc- 
lamation was  made  by  which  tlie  march  from  Scutari  to  Bagdad 
was  divided  into  no  days'  journey,  with  fixed  periods  for  halts; 


22«  TURKEY 

1638 

and  on  May  8  the  vast  liost  moved  steadily  forward  in  unmunnur- 
ing  obedience  to  its  leader's  will.  Throughout  this  second  progress 
of  Murad  he  showed  the  same  inquisitorial  strictness  and  merciless 
severity  in  examining  the  conduct  of  all  the  provincial  authorities 
that  had  been  felt  on  his  former  march  to  Eriwan.  Pashas,  judges, 
Imams,  and  tax  collectors  thronged  to  kiss  the  Sultan's  stirrup,  and 
if  there  was  the  slightest  taint  of  suspicion  on  the  character  of  any 
functionary  for  probity,  activity,  or  loyalty,  the  head  of  the  un- 
happy homager  rolled  in  the  dust  beneath  the  imperial  charger's 
hoofs. 

On  November  15,  1638,  after  the  preappointed  no  days 
of  march  and  86  days  of  halt,  the  Ottoman  standards  again 
appeared  before  Bagdad,  and  the  last  siege  of  this  great  city  com- 
menced. The  fortifications  were  strong;  the  garrison  amounted 
to  30,000  men,  1200  of  whom  were  regularly  trained  musketeers; 
and  the  Persian  governor,  Bektish  Khan,  was  an  officer  of  proved 
ability  and  bravery.  A  desperate  resistance  was  expected,  and  was 
encountered  by  the  Turks ;  but  their  numbers,  their  discipline,  and 
the  resolute  skill  of  their  Sultan  prevailed  over  all.  Murad  gave 
his  men  an  example  of  patient  toil,  as  well  as  active  courage.  He 
labored  in  the  trenches  and  pointed  the  cannon  with  his  own  hands. 
And  when,  in  one  of  the  numerous  sorties  made  by  the  garrison, 
a  Persian  soldier,  of  gigantic  size  and  strength,  challenged  the 
best  and  boldest  Turk  to  single  combat,  Murad  stood  forth  in 
person,  and  after  a  long  and  doubtful  conflict  clove  his  foe  from 
skull  to  chin  with  a  saber  stroke.  On  December  22  the  Turk- 
ish artillery  had  made  a  breach  of  eighty  yards,  along  which 
the  defenses  were  so  completely  leveled  that,  in  the  words  of  an 
Ottoman  writer,  "  a  blind  man  might  have  galloped  over  them  with 
loose  bridle  without  his  horse  stumbling."  The  ditch  had  been 
heaped  up  with  fascines,  and  the  Turks  rushed  forward  to  an  assault 
which  was  for  two  days  baffled  by  the  number  and  valor  of  the 
besieged.  On  the  evening  of  the  second  day  Murad  bitterly  re- 
proached his  Grand  Vizier,  Tayar  Mohammed  Pasha,  for  tlie 
repulse  of  the  troops,  and  accused  him  of  want  of  courage.  The 
Vizier  replied,  "  Would  to  God,  my  Padishah,  that  it  were  half  as 
easy  to  ensure  for  thee  the  winning  of  Bagdad  as  it  will  be  for  me 
to  lay  down  my  life  in  the  breach  to-morrow  in  thy  service."  On 
the  third  day  (Christmas  eve,  1638)  Tayar  Mohammed  led  the 
forlorn  hope  in  person,  and  was  shot  dead  through  the  throat 


M  U  R  A  D     I V  2»3 

1638-1640 

by  a  volley  from  the  Persian  musketeers.  But  the  Turks  poured  on 
with  unremitted  impetuosity,  and  at  length  the  city  was  carried. 
Part  of  the  garrison,  which  had  retired  to  some  inner  defenses, 
asked  for  quarter,  which  was  at  first  granted ;  but  a  conflict  having 
accidentally  recommenced  in  the  streets  between  some  Persian  mus- 
keteers and  a  Turkish  detachment,  Murad  ordered  a  general 
slaughter  of  the  Persians,  and  after  a  whole  day  of  butchery 
scarcely  300  out  of  the  garrison,  which  had  originally  consisted  of 
30,000  men,  were  left  alive.  A  few  days  afterward  Murad  was 
exasperated  by  the  accidental  or  designed  explosion  of  a  powder 
magazine,  by  which  800  Janissaries  were  killed  and  wounded ;  and 
he  commanded  a  massacre  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  city,  in  which 
30,000  are  computed  by  the  Ottoman  historians  to  have  perished. 
In  February  Murad  commenced  his  homeward  march,  after  having 
repaired  the  city  walls,  and  left  one  of  his  best  generals  with  12,000 
troops  to  occupy  Bagdad,  which  has  never  since  been  wrested  from 
the  Turks.  The  Sultan  reached  Constantinople  on  June  10,  1638, 
and  made  a  triumphal  entry  into  his  capital,  which  is  memorable, 
not  only  on  account  of  its  splendor  and  of  the  importance  of  the 
conquest  which  it  celebrated,  but  because  it  was  then  that  Constanti- 
nople beheld  for  the  last  time  the  once  familiar  spectacle  of  the 
return  of  her  monarch  victorious  from  a  campaign  which  he  had 
conducted  in  person. 

A  peace  with  Persia,  on  the  basis  of  that  which  Suleiman  the 
Great  had  granted  in  1555,  was  the  speedy  result  of  Murad's 
victories  (September  15,  1639).  Eriwan  was  restored  by  the 
Porte ;  but  the  possession  of  Bagdad  and  the  adjacent  territory  by 
the  Ottomans  was  solemnly  sanctioned  and  confirmed.  Eighty 
years  passed  away  before  Turkey  was  again  obliged  to  struggle 
against  her  old  and  obstinate  enemy  on  the  line  of  the  Euphrates. 
For  this  long  cessation  of  exhausting  hostilities,  and  this  enduring 
acknowledgment  of  superiority  by  Persia,  Turkey  owes  a  deep  debt 
of  gratitude  to  the  memory  of  Murad  IV. 

Murad  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  on  February  9, 
1640.  In  the  interval  between  his  return  from  Bagdad  and  his 
last  illness  he  had  endeavored  to  restore  the  fallen  naval  power  of 
his  empire :  he  had  quelled  the  spirit  of  insurrection  that  had  been 
rife  in  Albania  and  the  neighboring  districts  during  his  absence  in 
Asia,  and  he  was  believed  to  be  preparing  for  a  war  with  Venice. 
A   fever,   aggravated  by  his  habits  of  intemperance    and  by  his 


224  TURK  E  Y 

1640 

superstitious  alarm  at  an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  proved  fatal  to  him 
after  an  illness  of  fifteen  days.  One  of  his  last  acts  was  to  command 
the  execution  of  his  sole  surviving  brother,  Ibrahim.  It  may  be 
doubted  whether  this  mark  of  "  the  ruling  spirit  strong  in  death  " 
was  caused  by  the  delirium  of  fever,  or  from  a  desire  that  his 
favorite,  the  Silihdar  Pasha,  should  succeed  to  the  throne  on  the 
extinction  of  the  race  of  Othman,  or  whether  Murad  IV.  wished 
for  the  gloomy  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  his  house  and  dynasty 
would  descend  to  the  grave  with  him.  The  Sultana  Valide  pre- 
served Ibrahim's  life,  and  used  the  pious  fraud  of  a  false  message 
to  the  Sultan  that  his  command  had  been  fulfilled.  Murad,  then 
almost  in  the  pangs  of  death,  "  grinned  horrible  a  ghastly  smile  "  in 
the  belief  that  his  brother  was  slain,  and  tried  to  rise  from  his  bed 
to  behold  the  supposed  dead  body.  His  attendants,  who  trembled 
for  their  own  lives  should  the  deception  be  detected,  forcibly  held 
liim  back  on  the  couch.  The  Imam,  who  had  been  waiting  in  an 
adjoining  room,  but  had  hitherto  feared  to  approach  the  terrible 
dying  man,  was  now  brought  forward  by  the  pages ;  and  while 
the  priest  commenced  his  words  of  prayer,  the  "  elf  era  vis  animi " 
of  Murad  IV.  departed  from  the  world. 


ChapterX  V 

THE   AGE    OF   THE    GREAT   VIZIERS.     1 640-1677 

WE  have  now  traced  the  fortunes  of  the  house  of  Othman 
during  a  period  of  nearly  four  hundred  years.  A 
further  space  of  rather  more  than  two  centuries  remains 
to  be  examined,  which  comprises  the  reigns  of  fifteen  princes.  But, 
with  the  exception  of  the  great  though  unsuccessful  Mahmud  II., 
perhaps  with  the  exceptions  also  of  Mustapha  II.  and  Selim  III., 
the  Turkish  princes  whom  we  are  proceeding  to  contemplate  form 
figures  of  but  languid  interest  on  the  historic  page.  The  decay  of 
the  state  accords  wnth  the  degeneracy  of  its  rulers ;  and  minute 
descriptions  of  the  troubles  and  calamities  of  declining  empire  are 
generally  monotonous  and  unattractive.  We  shall  indeed  still  have 
our  attention  drawn  to  fierce  and  eventful  wars;  and  we  shall  still 
meet  wnth  names  that  must  ever  live  high  in  martial  renown ;  but 
they  are  wars  in  which  the  Crescent  has  generally,  though  not 
invariably,  gone  back;  they  are  principally  the  names  of  command- 
ers who  have  grown  great,  not  in  the  advancement,  but  at  the 
expense  of  the  house  of  Othman ;  such  names  as  Montecuculi, 
Sobieski,  Eugene,  and  Suvarov.  Yet  gleams  of  glory  and  success 
on  the  Turkish  side  will  not  be  found  altogether  wanting,  and  there 
have  been  truly  great  men  in  the  councils  and  the  armies  of  Turkey. 
She  has  had  her  Kiuprilis,  and  others,  whose  names  have  long 
deserved  and  commanded  more  than  merely  Oriental  celebrity.  We 
may  remark,  also,  that  these  last  two  centuries  of  Ottoman  history, 
though  less  picturesque  and  spirit-stirring  than  its  earlier  periods, 
are  more  practically  instructive  and  valuable  for  us  to  study,  with 
reference  to  the  great  problems  which  the  states  of  Central  and 
W^estern  Europe  are  now  called  on  to  solve. 

When  Sultan  Alurad  TV.  expired,  his  brother  Ibrahim,  whom 
witli  his  own  dying  breath  he  had  vainly  doomed  to  die,  w^as  the 
sole  surviving  representative  in  male  descent  of  the  house  of  Oth- 
man. Ibrahim  had  during  ^Murad's  reig'n  been  a  prisoner  in  the 
royal  palace,  and  for  the  last  eight  years  had  trembled  in  the  daily 

225 


«2J26  TURKEY 

1640-1648 

expectation  of  death.  When  the  grandees  of  the  empire  hastened 
to  his  apartment  with  the  tidings  that  Sultan  Murad  was  no  more, 
and  with  congratulations  to  their  new  sovereign,  Ibrahim  in  his 
terror  thought  that  the  executioners  were  approaching,  and  barred 
the  door  against  them.  He  long  refused  to  believe  their  assurances 
of  Murad's  decease,  and  was  only  convinced  when  the  Sultana- 
mother  ordered  the  body  of  her  dead  son  to  be  carried  within  sight 
of  the  living  one.  Then  Ibrahim  came  forth,  and  mounted  the 
Turkish  throne,  which  received  in  him  a  selfish  voluptuary,  in  whom 
long  imprisonment  and  protracted  terror  had  debased  whatever 
spirit  nature  might  have  originally  bestowed,  and  who  was  as 
rapacious  and  bloodthirsty  as  he  was  cowardly  and  mean.  Under 
Ibrahim  the  worst  evils  that  had  prevailed  in  the  time  of  Murad's 
weakest  predecessors  were  speedily  revived ;  while  the  spirit  of 
cruelty  in  which  Murad  had  governed  continued  to  rage  with  even 
greater  enormity. 

For  a  short  period  Ibrahim's  first  Grand  Vizier,  Kara  Mustapha, 
labored  to  check  the  excesses  and  supply  the  deficiencies  of  his  sov- 
ereign. The  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte  received  from  Kara 
Mustapha  impartial  justice;  and  he  attempted  with  some  degree  of 
temporary  success  to  keep  down  the  growth  of  abuses  in  the  finan- 
cial administration  of  the  empire.  He  had  the  perilous  honesty  to 
speak  with  frankness  to  the  dissolute  tyrant  whom  he  served,  to 
oppose  Ibrahim's  mad  caprices,  and  to  strive  against  the  pernicious 
influence  of  the  favorite  sultanas  and  buffoons,  who  trafficked  in 
the  sale  of  posts  and  dignities.  The  offense  which  the  Vizier  thus 
gave,  and  the  reputation  of  having  amassed  much  wealth,  were  sure 
causes  of  ruin  to  one  who  served  a  moody  and  avaricious  master 
like  Ibrahim.  At  the  same  time  the  Vizier's  character  was  far 
from  faultless,  and  his  errors  and  his  merits  cooperated  to  effect 
his  destruction.  The  successor  of  Kara  Mustapha  in  the  Grand 
Vizierate  was  Sultanzade  Pasha.  Pie  was  determined  not  to  incur 
his  predecessor's  fate  by  uncourtly  frankness  toward  his  sovereign. 
He  flattered  every  caprice,  and  was  the  ready  instrument  of  every 
passion  of  the  Sultan,  whose  immoderate  appetite  for  sensual 
pleasures  and  savage  fondness  of  ordering  and  of  witnessing  acts 
of  cruelty  now  raged  without  stint  or  shame. 

The  treasures  which  the  stern  prudence  of  Murad  had  accu- 
mulated were  soon  squandered  by  the  effeminate  prodigality  of  his 
successor.     In  order  to  obtain  fresh  supplies  of  gold  for  his  worth- 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  227 

1640-1648 

less  favorites,  and  for  the  realization  of  his  wild  fancies,  Ibrahim 
sold  every  office  of  state,  and  every  step  in  the  honors  both  of  pen 
and  sword,  to  the  highest  bidder.  The  burdens  of  the  old  taxes 
were  inordinately  increased,  and  new  imposts  were  added,  the  very 
names  of  which  showed  the  frivolous  causes  for  which  the  Sultan 
drained  the  resources  of  his  subjects,  thus  adding  the  sense  of 
insult  to  that  of  oppression.  One  of  Ibrahim's  passions  w^as  a 
morbid  craving  for  perfumes,  especially  for  amber.  Another  was 
an  excessive  fondness  not  only  for  w^earing,  but  for  seeing  around 
him,  furs  of  the  most  rare  and  costly  description.  To  meet  these 
desires  Ibrahim  created  two  new  taxes,  one  called  the  fur  tax 
and  the  other  called  the  amber  tax.  A  colonel  of  the  Janissaries, 
named  Black  Murad,  to  whom  the  five  hundred  men  of  his  regiment 
were  devotedly  attached,  at  this  time  returned  from  the  Candian 
wars  and  was  met  on  landing  by  a  treasury  officer,  who,  in  con- 
formity with  the  resolution  of  the  Divan,  demanded  of  him  so  many 
sable-skins,  so  many  ounces  of  amber,  and  a  certain  sum  of  money. 
Rolling  his  eyes,  bloodshot  with  wrath,  on  the  tax-gatherer.  Black 
Murad  growled  out :  "  I  have  brought  nothing  back  from  Candia 
but  gunpowder  and  lead.  Sables  and  amber  are  things  that  I  know 
only  by  name.  Money  I  have  none;  and  if  I  am  to  give  it  you,  I 
must  first  beg  or  borrow  it."  The  disasters  of  the  Venetian  wars 
during  the  year  1648  irritated  more  and  more  the  Ottoman  nation 
against  their  imbecile  but  oppressive  ruler,  and  a  formidable  con- 
spiracy was  organized  to  deprive  him  of  the  power  which  he  abused. 
The  conspiracy  was  headed  by  Black  Murad,  with  whom  were 
associated  many  officers  of  the  Janissaries  and  the  whole  body  of 
the  Ulema,  whose  chief  had  been  grossly  insulted  by  Ibrahim.  The 
insurgents  surrounded  the  palace,  put  to  death  the  obnoxious  Vizier, 
and  in  spite  of  the  entreaties  of  the  Sultana  Valide  declared 
Ibrahim  deposed  in  favor  of  his  son  Mohammed.  Ibrahim  was 
kept  in  sure  but  not  rigorous  captivity  for  ten  days,  when  a  tumult 
among  the  Spahis,  some  of  whom  raised  a  cry  in  his  favor,  decided 
his  fate.  The  chiefs  of  the  late  revolution  resolved  to  secure  them- 
selves against  a  reaction  in  behalf  of  Ibrahim  by  putting  him  to 
death.  They  laid  a  formal  case  before  the  Mufti,  and  demanded 
his  opinion  on  the  following  question :  "  Is  it  lawful  to  depose  and 
put  to  death  a  sovereign  who  confers  the  dignities  of  the  pen  and 
of  the  sword  not  on  those  who  are  worthy  of  them,  but  on  those 
who  buy  them  for  money?  "    The  laconic  answer  of  the  Mufti  was, 


228  TURKEY 

1640-1648 

*'  Yes."  The  ministers  of  death  were  accordingly  sent  to  Ibrahim's 
prison,  whither  the  Mufti,  the  new  Grand  Vizier  Sofi  Mohammed, 
and  their  principal  colleagues  also  repaired,  to  witness  and  to  ensure 
the  fulfillment  of  the  sentence.  Ibrahim  was  reading  the  Koran 
when  they  entered.  Seeing  them  accompanied  by  the  executioners, 
whom  he  himself  had  so  often  employed  to  do  their  deadly  work  in 
his  presence,  he  knew  his  hour  was  come,  and  he  exclaimed,  "  Is 
there  no  one  of  all  those  who  have  eaten  my  bread  that  will  pity 
and  protect  me?  These  men  of  blood  have  come  to  kill  me!  Oh, 
mercy !  mercy !  "  The  trembling  executioners  were  sternly  com- 
manded by  the  Mufti  and  the  Vizier  to  do  their  duty.  Seized  in 
their  fatal  grasp,  the  wretched  Ibrahim  broke  out  into  blasphemies 
and  curses,  and  died  invoking  the  vengeance  of  God  upon  the 
Turkish  nation  for  their  disloyalty  to  their  sovereign. 

The  Mufti  justified  his  regicidal  fetwah  by  the  authority  of  the 
sentence  in  the  law  which  says :  "  If  there  are  two  Caliphs  let  one 
of  them  be  put  to  death."  This  sentence  Von  Hammer  terms 
"  a  proposition  to  shudder  at  in  the  law  of  Islam.  A  proposition 
Vvhich,  arbitrarily  applied  and  extended,  sanctions  the  execution  not 
only  of  all  deposed  sovereigns,  but  also  of  all  princes  whose  exist- 
ence seems  to  menace  the  master  of  the  throne  with  rivalry.  It  is 
the  bloody  authorization  of  the  state  maxim  of  the  Ottomans  for 
the  murder  of  kings'  brothers,  sons,  and  fathers."  ^ 

The  principal  foreign  events  of  the  reign  of  Ibrahim  were  the 
siege  of  Azov  and  the  commencement  of  the  long  war  with  the 
Venetians,  called  the  war  of  Candia.  The  important  city  of  Azov, 
which  commands  the  navigation  of  the  sea  of  that  name,  and  gives 
to  its  occupiers  great  advantages  for  warlike  operations  in  the 
Crimea  and  along  all  the  coasts  of  the  Euxine,  had,  at  the  time 
of  Il)rahim's  accession,  been  for  four  years  in  the  possession  of  the 
Cossacks  of  the  vicinity,  who  were  nominal  subjects  of  the  Russian 
Czar.  Ibrahim's  first  Vizier,  Kara  Mustapha,  was  well  aware  of 
the  necessity  of  maintaining  the  Turkish  power  northward  of  the 
Black  Sea;  and  in  1641  a  strong  army  and  fleet  left  Constantinople 
f(jr  the  recovery  of  Azov.  This  expedition  was  aided  by  a  Tartar 
force  under  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea.  The  Cossacks  defended  the 
place  braxely.  and  after  a  siege  of  three  months  the  Turks  were 
obliged  t(j  retire  with  a  loss  of  7000  Janissaries  and  of  a  multitude 
of   auxiliary   W'allachians,    Moldavians,    and   Tartars,     whom    the 

1  Von  Hammer,  "History  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,"  vol.  iii.  p    321. 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  229 

1640-1648 

Ottoman  historians  do  not  enumerate.  A  fresh  expedition  was  sent 
in  the  next  year,  and  on  this  occasion  Mohammed  Ghirai,  the 
Crimean  Khan,  led  no  less  than  100,000  Tartars  to  Azov,  to  co- 
operate with  the  regular  Turkish  troops.  The  Cossacks  found 
themselves  unable  to  resist  such  a  force.  The  Czar  refused  to  aid 
them,  and  sent  an  embassy  from  jMoscow  to  Ibrahim,  renouncing 
all  concern  with  Azov,  and  desiring  to  renew  the  old  amity  between 
Russia  and  the  Porte.  In  this  emergency  the  Cossack  garrison, 
with  the  same  ferocious  energy  which  their  race  has  often  displayed, 
set  fire  to  the  city  which  they  could  no  longer  defend,  and  left  a 
heap  of  ruins  for  the  Turks  and  Tartars  to  occupy.  The  Ottoman 
general  rebuilt  the  city  and  fortified  it  anew  with  care  commensurate 
with  the  importance  of  the  post.  A  garrison  of  26,000  men,  in- 
cluding twenty  companies  of  Janissaries,  with  a  numerous  train  of 
artillery,  was  left  under  Islam  Pasha  to  protect  the  Turkish  interests 
in  these  regions. 

The  incessant  attacks  of  the  Cossacks  on  the  Turkish  and  of 
the  Tartars  on  the  Russian  territories  were  tlie  subjects  of  frequent 
complaints  between  the  courts  of  Moscow  and  Constantinople  dur- 
ing Ibrahim's  reign.  Each  sovereign  required  the  other  to  keep 
his  lawless  vassals  in  check.  The  Czar  Alexis  ]\Iikhaiovich  pro- 
tested against  being  held  responsible  for  the  acts  of  the  Cossacks, 
whom,  in  a  letter  to  the  Sultan,  he  termed  "  a  horde  of  malefactors 
who  had  withdrawn  as  far  as  possible  from  the  reach  of  their 
sovereign's  power  in  order  to  escape  the  punishment  due  to  their 
crimes."  The  Sultan  and  the  Vizier,  on  the  other  hand,  required 
that  no  one  on  the  side  of  Russia  should  do  the  least  damage  to 
aught  that  belonged  to  a  subject  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  either  on 
the  Sea  of  Azov  or  the  Black  Sea.  The  pretext  of  shifting  the  blame 
on  the  Cossacks,  and  in  general,  all  excuses,  were  to  be  inadmissible. 
On  condition  of  this  being  done,  and  of  the  Czar  paying  the  ancient 
tribute  to  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  the  Sultan  promised  not  to  aid 
the  Tartars  against  Moscow.  But  whatever  the  sovereigns  might 
write  or  desire,  still  the  system  of  border  war  between  Cossack  and 
Tartar  was  carried  on ;  and  the  Turkish  and  Russian  troops  more 
than  once  came  into  collision  north  of  the  Black  Sea  in  Ibrahim's 
time  while  protecting  their  irregular  confederates  or  seeking  re- 
dress for  themselves.  In  1646  the  Tartars  pursued  the  Cossacks 
into  the  southern  provinces  of  Russia  and  brought  away  thence 
3000  prisoners,  whom  they  sold  for  slaves  at  Perekop.     A  Russian 


230  TURKEY 

1640-164& 

army  advanced  against  Azov,  to  avenge  that  affront,  but  was  beaten 
in  several  actions  by  Mousa  Pasha  and  the  Turkish  garrison,  who 
sent  400  prisoners  and  800  Muscovites'  heads  to  Constantinople  as 
trophies  of  their  success. 

The  Crimean  Khan,  Islam  Ghirai,  was  more  bitter  against  the 
Russians  than  was  his  master  the  Sultan,  and  boldly  refused  to 
obey  orders  from  Constantinople  not  to  molest  those  whom  he 
regarded  as  the  natural  enemies  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  He  had 
early  in  1648  made  an  incursion  into  Poland  and  Russia,  and  car- 
ried off  40,000  subjects  of  those  realms  into  slavery.  The  Polish 
and  Russian  sovereigns  sent  ambassadors  to  the  Sublime  Porte  to 
ask  redress :  and  Ibrahim  dispatched  two  of  his  officers  to  the 
Crimea  with  a  letter  to  the  Khan  in  which  he  was  commanded  to 
collect  the  Christian  prisoners  whom  he  had  seized  in  violation  of 
all  treaties,  and  to  send  them  to  Constantinople,  that  they  might 
be  given  up  to  the  representatives  of  their  governments.  Khan 
Ghirai  read  the  letter,  and  coldly  replied — "  I  and  all  here  are  the 
Sultan's  servants.  But  the  Russians  only  desire  peace  in  appear- 
ance; they  only  ask  for  it  while  they  feel  the  weight  of  our  vic- 
torious arms.  If  we  give  them  breathing  time,  they  ravage  the 
coasts  of  Anatolia  with  their  squadrons.  1  have  more  than  once 
represented  to  the  Divan  that  there  were  two  neglected  strong 
places  in  this  neighborhood,  which  it  would  be  prudent  for  us  to 
occupy.  Now,  the  Russians  have  made  themselves  masters  of 
them;  and  they  have  raised  more  than  twenty  little  fortified  posts. 
If  we  are  to  remain  inactive  this  year,  they  will  seize  Akerman, 
and  conquer  all  Moldavia."  With  this  answer  the  Sultan's  mes- 
sengers were  obliged  to  return  to  Constantinople. 

The  immediate  occasion  of  the  war  of  Candia  was  the  offense 
given  in  1644  to  the  Sultan  by  the  capture  of  a  rich  fleet  of  mer- 
chant vessels  which  was  voyaging  from  Constantinople  to  Egypt. 
The  ca])tors  were  Maltese,  not  Venetian,  galleys,  but  they  anchored 
with  their  prizes  in  the  roads  of  Kalismene  on  the  south  coast  of 
Candia,  which  had  now  been  in  the  possession  of  the  Venetians 
since  the  time  of  the  fourth  crusade,  when,  on  partitioning  the 
conquered  Greek  Empire,  they  purchased  that  important  island 
from  their  fellow-crusader  the  Marquis  of  Montserrat,  to  whom  it 
had  first  been  allotted  as  his  portion  of  the  sacred  spoil.  Sultan 
Ibrahim  was  maddened  with  rage  when  he  heard  of  the  capture 
of  the  Turkish  ships,  some  of  which  were  the  property  of  one  of 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  231 

1640-1648 

the  chief  eunuchs  of  the  imperial  household.  He  threatened  de- 
struction to  the  whole  Christian  name,  and  ordered  armaments  to 
be  instantly  dispatched  against  the  Maltese  knights ;  but  his  officers 
persuaded  him  not  to  renew  the  enterprise,  in  which  the  great  Sulei- 
man had  failed  so  signally,  against  the  barren  and  strongly  for- 
tified rock  of  Malta;  and  rather  to  turn  his  arms  to  the  acquisi- 
tion of  the  rich  and  valuable  Isle  of  Candia.  They  pointed  out  to 
him  that  Candia  was  most  advantageously  situated  for  incorpora- 
tion with  the  Ottoman  dominions,  and  that  it  might  be  easily 
wrested  by  surprise  from  its  Venetian  masters,  who  had  given  just 
cause  for  hostilities  by  allowing  the  piratical  Maltese  to  secure 
their  booty  on  the  Cretan  coasts.  It  was  resolved  accordingly 
by  the  Porte  to  attack  Candia.  There  was  at  that  time  peace  be- 
tween Turkey  and  Venice.  Ibrahim  and  his  ministers  determined 
to  aid  force  by  fraud,  and  they  pretended  to  receive  most  gra- 
ciously the  excuses  which  the  Republic  of  St.  Mark  offered  for  the 
accidental  reception  of  the  Maltese  galleys  at  Kalismene.  A  large 
fleet  and  army  Iqft  the  Dardanelles  on  April  30,  1645,  with 
the  declared  object  of  assailing  Malta;  but,  after  the  expedition 
had  paused  for  a  time  on  the  south  coast  of  the  Morea,  the  Gener- 
alissimo Yusuf  Pasha  put  to  sea  again,  read  to  his  assembled 
captains  the  Sultan's  orders,  which  had  previously  been  kept  secret ; 
and  instead  of  sailing  westward  for  Malta,  stood  to  the  south  with 
a  favorable  wind,  which  brought  the  Turkish  squadron  to  Canea, 
at  the  western  extremity  of  the  Isle  of  Candia,  on  June  24. 
The  suspicions  of  the  Venetian  Government  as  to  the  real  object 
of  the  expedition  had  not  been  wholly  quieted  by  the  protestations 
of  the  Sultan's  ministers.  Orders  had  been  sent  from  Venice  to 
put  the  fortresses  of  the  island  in  a  state  of  defense,  and  to  collect 
the  militia ;  and  reinforcements  had  been  sent  to  the  garrison.  But 
the  native  population  hated  the  rule  of  the  Venetian  oligarchy ; 
and  the  troops  and  galleys  under  the  governor's  command  were 
inadequate  for  the  defense  of  so  long  a  line  of  seaboard  as  Crete 
presents  to  an  invader.  The  Turks  landed  without  opposition; 
and  Canea,  the  principal  city  of  the  western  part  of  the  island, 
was  besieged  and  captured  by  them  before  the  end  of  August.  In 
the  following  year  they  took  Retino,  and  in  the  spring  of  1648 
they  began  the  siege  of  Candia,  the  capital  of  the  island.  This 
memorable  siege  was  prolonged  for  twenty  years  by  the  desperate 
exertions  of  the  Venetians,  who  strained  their  utmost  resources 


232  T  U 11  K  E  Y 

1648-1656 

to  rescue  Candia.  They  frequently  inflicted  severe  and  humiliating 
defeats  on  the  Turkish  squadrons;  they  even  captured  the  islands 
of  Lemnos  and  Tenedos  from  the  Ottomans,  and  more  than  once 
ravaged  the  coasts  near  Constantinople;  but  they  were  never  able 
to  drive  away  the  besieging  army  from  before  Candia;  though 
the  operations  of  the  Turks  were  retarded  and  often  paralyzed  by 
tlie  imbecility  and  corruption  of  the  Sublime  Porte  throughout 
the  reign  of  Ibrahim,  and  the  first  part  of  that  of  his  son  Mohammed 
IV.,  whose  elevation  to  the  throne  at  the  age  of  seven  years,  when 
his  father  was  deposed  and  murdered,  has  been  already  narrated. 
It  would  be  useless  to  dwell  on  the  internal  history  of  Turkey 
during  the  minority  of  Mohammed  IV.,  or  to  recapitulate  the  ever- 
recurring  incidents  of  court  intrigue,  military  insubordination  and 
violence,  judicial  venality,  local  oppression  and  provincial  revolt. 
The  strife  of  factions  was  aggravated  by  the  deadly  rivalry  that 
sprang  up  between  the  old  Sultana  Valide,  the  Sultan's  grand- 
mother, and  his  mother,  the  young  Sultana  Valide,  whose  name 
was  Tarkhan — a  rivalry  which  led  to  the  murder  of  the  elder 
princess.  As  no  stronger  foe  than  Venice  attacked  the  Ottoman 
Empire,  it  lingered  on  through  this  period  of  renewed  misery  and 
weakness,  until  at  length,  in  1656,  through  the  influence  of  the 
Sultana  Tarkhan,  the  Grand  Vizierate  was  given  to  an  aged  states- 
man named  Mohammed  Kiuprili,  who  deserves  to  be  honored  as 
the  founder  of  a  dynasty  of  ministers  that  raised  Turkey,  in  spite 
of  the  deficiency  of  her  princes,  once  more  to  comparative  power, 
and  prosperity,  and  glory,  and  who  long  retarded,  if  they  could 
not  avert,  the  ultimate  decline  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Mohammed  Kiuprili  was  the  grandson  of  an  Albanian  who 
had  migrated  to  Asia  Minor  and  settled  in  the  town  of  Kiupri, 
near  the  mouth  of  the  River  Halys.  The  ruler  of  the  councils  of 
tlie  Ottoman  Empire  had  been,  in  early  youth,  a  kitchen-boy,  from 
which  situation  he  rose  to  that  of  a  cook.  After  twenty-five  years 
of  service  he  became  the  steward  of  the  Grand  Vizier  Khosru: 
and  under  Khosru's  successor  he  was  made  Master  of  the  Horse. 
That  successor  favored  Kiuprili,  as  being  a  native  of  the  same 
province  as  himself;  and  by  his  influence  Kiuprili  was  made 
Governor  of  Damascus,  Tripoli,  and  Jerusalem,  and  one  of  the 
Viziers  of  state.  Afterward  he  accepted  the  inferior  post  of  Sanjak 
Beg  of  Giuztcndil  in  Albania,  where  he  led  an  armed  force  against 
S(jme  of  the  numertjus  insurgents  of  that  region,  but  was  defeated 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  233 

1656-1661 

and  taken  prisoner.  After  he  was  redeemed  from  captivity  he 
retired  to  his  native  town,  but  was  persuaded  by  a  Pasha,  called 
Mohammed  with  the  Wry  Neck,  to  follow  him  to  Constantinople. 
His  new  patron  became  Grand  Vizier,  but  soon  began  to  regard 
Kiuprili  as  a  dangerous  rival  for  court  favor.  It  does  not,  however, 
appear  that  Kiuprili  used  any  unfair  intrigues  to  obtain  the  Grand 
Vizierate.  Friends  who  knew  the  firmness  of  his  character,  his 
activity,  and  his  keen  common  sense,  recommended  him  to  the 
Sultana  Valide  as  a  man  who  might  possibly  restore  some  degree 
of  tranquillity  to  the  suffering  empire,  and  the  Grand  Vizierate 
was  offered  to  Kiuprili,  then  in  the  seventieth  year  of  his  age. 
He  refused  to  accept  it,  save  upon  certain  conditions.  He  required 
that  all  his  measures  should  be  ratified  without  examination  or 
discussion;  that  he  should  have  free  hands  in  the  distribution  of 
all  offices  and  preferments,  and  in  dealing  out  rewards  and  punish- 
ments, without  attending  to  recommendations  from  any  quarter, 
and  without  any  responsibility;  that  he  should  have  authority 
superior  to  all  influence  of  great  men  or  favorites ;  that  exclusive 
confidence  should  be  placed  in  him,  and  all  accusations  and  insin- 
uations against  him  should  be  instantly  rejected.  The  Sultana 
Valide,  in  behalf  of  her  son,  swore  solemnly  that  all  these  condi- 
tions should  be  fulfilled,  and  Mohammed  Kiuprili  became  Grand 
Vizier  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

His  former  patron,  Mohammed  the  Wry-Necked,  had  been 
dismissed  to  make  room  for  him ;  and  the  court  had  ordered  that 
the  deposed  minister  should  be  put  to  death,  and  that  his  goods 
should  be  confiscated  in  the  usual  manner.  Kiuprili  interceded 
and  saved  his  life,  and  gave  him  the  revenues  of  the  government 
of  Kanisha.  This  was  the  first,  and  it  was  almost  the  last,  act  of 
humanity  that  marked  Kiuprili's  administration.  A  stern  correc- 
tion of  abuses  was  required,  and  Kiuprili  applied  it,  not  indeed 
with  the  ostentatious  cruelty  of  Sultan  Murad  IV.,  but  with  the 
same  searching  and  unsparing  severity  which  had  marked  that 
monarch's  rule.  Kiuprili  took  the  precaution  of  compelling  the 
Mufti  to  sign  a  fetwah  sanctioning  by  anticipation  all  the  Grand 
Vizier's  measures,  and  he  then  employed  the  most  efficacious 
means  for  ridding  the  empire  of  all  who  disturbed  or  threatened 
public  order.  A  number  of  fanatical  Sheiks  and  dervishes  wlu^ 
troubled  Constantin(;ple  by  their  tumults,  and  their  lawless  violence 
against  all  who  did  not  comply  with  their  dogmas,   were  seized 


234  TURKEY 

1656-1661 

and  banished.  One  of  them,  who  murmured  against  the  Vizier, 
and  who  had  great  influence  with  the  populace,  was  strangled  and 
thrown  into  the  Bosphorus.  Kiuprili  intercepted  a  letter  from  the 
Greek  Patriarch  to  the  Voievode  of  Wallachia,  containing  a  pre- 
diction very  similar  to  those  which  are  frequent  in  our  own  time. 
The  Patriarch  said,  "The  power  of  Islam  is  drawing  to  an  end. 
The  Christian  faith  will  soon  be  supreme.  All  their  lands  will 
speedily  be  in  the  possession  of  the  Christians;  and  the  Lords  of 
the  Cross  and  the  Church-bell  will  be  the  Lords  of  the  empire." 
Kiuprili  read  in  this  an  encouragement  to  revolt,  and  hanged  the 
Greek  Patriarch  over  one  of  the  city  gates.  No  delinquency  past 
or  present,  no  preparation  for  plot  or  mutiny,  escaped  the  Vizier's 
vigilance.  He  planted  his  spies  in  every  province  and  town,  and 
secured  the  agency  of  trusty  and  unquestioning  executioners  of  his 
commands.  The  impress  of  a  resolute  will  was  felt  throughout 
the  empire,  and  men  obeyed  without  hesitation  the  man  whom  they 
perceived  never  hesitated  himself,  never  neglected  or  abandoned 
those  who  served  him,  and  never  forgave  those  who  thwarted 
or  disobeyed  him. 

Thirty-six  thousand  persons  are  said  to  have  been  put  to  death 
by  Mohammed  Kiuprili's  command  during  the  five  years  of  his 
Grand  Vizierate.  The  chief  executioner  of  Constantinople,  Sul- 
fikar,  confessed  afterward  that  he  himself  had  strangled  more 
than  four  thousand  and  thrown  them  into  the  Bosphorus.  Von 
Hammer,  who  repeats  and  accredits  these  numbers,  states  that  the 
aged  despot,  who  thus  marked  every  month  of  his  ministry  by  the 
sacrifice  of  more  than  five  hundred  lives,  had  acquired  a  reputation 
for  mildness  and  humanity  when  he  was  a  provincial  governor. 
It  is  fair  to  suppose  that  he  lavished  human  life  when  Grand  Vizier, 
not  out  of  any  natural  cruelty  in  his  disposition,  but  from  the 
belief  that  he  could  not  otherwise  suppress  revolt  and  anarchy,  and 
maintain  complete  obedience  to  his  authority.  The  price  at  which 
the  restoration  of  order  was  bought  under  Mohammed  Kiuprili 
was  indeed  fearful ;  but,  though  excessive,  it  was  not  paid  in  vain. 
The  revolts  which  had  raged  in  Transylvania  and  Asia  Minor  were 
quelled;  the  naval  strength  of  the  empire  was  revived;  the  Dar- 
danelles were  fortified ;  the  Ottoman  power  beyond  the  Black  Sea 
was  strengthened  by  the  erection  of  castles  on  the  Dneiper  and 
the  Don ;  and,  though  the  war  in  Candia  still  lingered,  the  islands 
of  Lemnos  and  Tenedos  were  recovered  from  the  Venetians.     His 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  235 

1661 

own  authority  in  the  empire  was  unshaken  until  the  last  hour  of 
his  life;  and  he  obtained  for  his  still  more  celebrated  son,  Ahmed 
Kiuprili,  the  succession  to  the  Grand  Vizierate.  It  is  said  that  old 
Kiuprili,  when  on  his  death-bed,  October  31,  1661,  after  recom- 
mending his  son  as  the  future  Vizier,  gave  the  young  Sultan  four 
especial  rules  to  follow.  One  was,  never  to  listen  to  the  advice  of 
women :  another  was,  never  to  let  a  subject  grow  over-rich :  the 
third  was,  to  keep  the  public  treasury  full  by  all  possible  means: 
and  the  last,  to  be  continually  on  horseback,  and  keep  his  armies 
in  constant  action. 

Sultan  Mohammed  IV.  was  now  advancing  toward  manhood, 
but  he  was  of  far  too  weak  a  character  to  govern  for  himself. 
His  great  delight  was  the  chase,  and  to  this  he  devoted  all  his 
energies  and  all  his  time.  Fortunately  for  his  empire,  he  placed 
the  most  implicit  confidence  in  Ahmed  Kiuprili,  the  new  Vizier, 
and  maintained  his  favorite  minister  in  power  against  all  the  nu- 
merous intrigues  that  were  directed  against  him.  Ahmed  Kiuprili 
was  the  real  ruler  of  Turkey  from  1661  to  his  death  in  1676; 
and  he  is  justily  eulogized  both  by  Ottoman  and  Christian  historians 
as  the  greatest  statesman  of  his  country.  He  was  only  twenty-six 
years  of  age  when  he  was  called  on  to  govern  the  empire,  but 
his  naturally  high  abilities  had  been  improved  by  the  best  education 
that  the  schools  of  Constantinople  could  supply,  and  he  had  learned 
practical  statesmanship  as  a  provincial  governor  and  general  dur- 
ing the  ministry  of  his  father.  Ahmed  Kiuprili  could  be  as  stern 
as  his  sire,  w'hen  duty  to  the  state  required  severity;  and  he  was 
equally  tenacious  in  not  permitting  the  least  encroachment  on  his 
authority.  But  he  was  usually  humane  and  generous,  and  his 
most  earnest  endeavors  were  directed  to  mitigate  the  burdens  of 
imperial  taxation,  and  to  protect  the  people  from  the  feudal  exac- 
tions of  the  Spahis,  and  from  the  arbitrary  violence  of  the  Pashas 
and  other  local  functionaries. 

Like  his  father,  Ahmed  Kiuprili  commenced  his  administration 
by  securing  himself  against  any  cabals  of  the  Ulema ;  and  he  gave 
at  the  same  time  a  noble  rebuke  to  the  chief  of  that  order,  who 
spoke  in  the  Divan  against  the  memory  of  the  late  Grand  Vizier. 
Ahmed  Kiuprili  said  to  him,  "  Mufti,  if  my  father  sentenced  men 
to  death,  he  did  so  by  the  sanction  of  thy  fetwah."  The  Mufti 
answered,  "  If  I  gave  him  my  fetwah,  it  was  because  I  feared  lest 
I  should  myself  suffer  under  his  cruelty."    "  Effendi,"  rejoined  the 


236  TURKEY 

1661-1 564 

Grand  Vizier,  "  is  it  for  thee,  who  art  a  teacher  of  the  law  of  the 
Prophet,  to  fear  God  less  than  His  creature?"  The  Mufti  was 
silent.  A  few  days  afterward  he  was  deposed  and  banished  to 
Rhodes,  and  his  important  station  given  to  Sanizade,  a  friend  on 
whom  Ahmed  Kiuprili  could  rely. 

It  was  in  the  civil  administration  of  the  Turkish  Empire  that 
the  genius  of  Ahmed  Kiuprili  found  its  best  field  of  exercise,  but 
he  was  soon  called  on  to  fulfill  the  military  duties  of  the  Grand 
Vizierate,  and  to  head  the  Ottoman  armies  in  the  war  with  Austria, 
which  broke  out  in  1663.  This,  like  most  of  the  other  wars  between 
the  two  empires,  originated  in  the  troubles  and  dissensions  which 
were  chronic  for  a  century  and  a  half  in  Hungary  and  Transyl- 
vania. After  several  conflicts  of  minor  importance  during  1661 
and  1662  betvv'een  the  respective  partisans  of  Austria  and  the 
Porte  in  these  provinces,  who  were  aided  against  each  other  by  the 
neighboring  Pashas  and  commandants,  an  Ottoman  army  was 
collected  by  the  Grand  Vizier  on  a  scale  of  grandeur  worthy  of  the 
victorious  days  of  Suleiman  Kanuni :  and  Kiuprili  resolved  not 
only  to  complete  the  ascendency  of  the  Turks  in  Hungary  and 
Transylvania,  but  to  crush  entirely  and  finally  the  power  of  Austria. 
]\Iohammed  IV.  marched  with  his  troops  from  Constantinople  to 
Adrianople;  but  there  he  remained  behind  to  resume  his  favorite 
hunting  while  his  Grand  Vizier  led  the  army  against  the  enemy. 
The  Sultan  placed  the  sacred  standard  of  the  Prophet  in  Kiu- 
prili's  hands  at  parting;  and  on  June  8,  1663,  that  formidable  en- 
sign of  Turkish  war  was  displayed  at  Belgrade.  Kiuprili  had 
under  his  command  121,000  men,  123  field-pieces,  12  heavy  bat- 
tering cannon,  60,000  camels,  and  10,000  mules.  With  this  im- 
pijsing  force  he  overran  the  open  country  of  Hungary  and 
Transylvania  almost  without  opposition,  and  besieged  and  cap- 
tured the  strong  city  of  Neuhausel  in  the  September  of  that  year, 
which  was  the  most  brilliant  achievement  that  the  Turks  had 
effected  in  Europe  since  the  battle  of  Cerestes,  more  than  fifty  years 
before.  The  Vizier,  after  this  siege,  did  not  recommence  active 
operations  with  his  main  army  until  the  spring  of  the  following 
year,  but  his  light  troo])s  spread  devastation  far  and  wide  through 
Austria.  In  May,  1664,  Kiuprili  advanced  and  crossed  the  river 
Mur,  and  he  besieged  and  captured  the  fortress  of  Serivar,  which 
the  Tiu-k.s  dismantled  and  ^et  fire  to.  on  July  7,  as  a  mark  of 
contempt  lor  the  reigning  Emperor  of  Austria,  by  whom  it  had 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  237 

1664 

been  founded.  From  the  ruins  of  Serivar  the  Ottoman  army 
marched  northward,  passing  by  the  western  extremity  of  Lake 
Balaton.  They  captured  Egervar,  Kipornak,  and  other  strong 
places,  and  on  July  26  the  Turks  reached  the  right  bank  of 
the  River  Raab^  near  to  the  town  of  Ksermend.  Could  they  cross 
that  river  tlie  remainder  of  the  march  against  Vienna  seemed  easy ; 
the  imperialist  army  which  opposed  them  in  this  campaign  was 
inferior  to  them  in  numbers ;  but  happily  for  Austria,  that  army 
was  commanded  by  one  of  the  ablest  generals  of  the  age,  who 
was  destined  to  gain  the  first  great  victory  of  Christendom  in  a 
pitched  battle  in  open  field  against  the  full  force  of  the  Turkish  arms. 
Count  Raymond  de  Montecuculi  was,  like  many  other  of  the 
greatest  generals  known  in  modern  history,  an  Italian.  He  was 
born  at  Modena,  of  a  noble  famil}^  of  that  duchy,  in  1608.  He  en- 
tered into  the  Austrian  service,  and  acquired  distinction  in  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  and  afterward  in  hostilities 
against  Poland.  In  1664  he  was  named  generalissimo  of  the  im- 
perial forces  and  sent  to  check  the  menacing  progress  of  the  Turks. 
The  Austrian  and  Hungarian  army,  which  was  placed  under 
Montecuculi's  command,  was  weak  in  numbers,  and  at  the 
opening  of  the  campaign  he  was  unable  to  prevent  the  Vizier 
Kiuprili  from  crossing  the  Mur  and  reducing  the  Christian  cities 
that  lay  between  that  river  and  the  Raab.  But  while  the  Turks 
were  engaged  in  these  operations  ]\Iontecuculi  effected  a  junction 
with  the  auxiliary  troops  of  the  states  of  the  empire,  and  also  with 
a  valuable  force  of  French  troops  which  had  vc^Juntarily  marched 
under  the  Count  of  Coligny  and  other  noblemen  to  serx'e  in  the 
Hungarian  war.  With  his  army  thus  strengthened,  Montecuculi 
took  up  a  position  near  Krermend  on  the  Raab,  covering  the  road 
to  Vienna ;  and,  from  the  breadth  and  rapidity  of  llie  river  in  that 
place,  the  attempts  made  by  the  Ottoman  vanguard  to  f(jrce  a  pas- 
sage were  easily  repulsed.  Kiuprili  now  marched  up  the  Raab, 
along  the  right  bank  toward  Styria,  closely  followed  along  the  left 
bank  by  Montecuculi,  who  thus  turned  the  enemy  farther  away  from 
the  Austrian  capital,  and  also  from  the  Turkish  reserves  wliich  were 
concentrating  at  Buda  and  Stuluveissenburg.  Several  efforts  of 
the  Turks  to  cross  the  river  were  checked  by  the  imperialists,  but 
at  last  the  armies  marched  past  tlie  point  where  the  Laufritz  flows 
into  the  Rarih,  in  ^he  vicinity  of  the  village  of  St.  Gothard,  and  then 
the  single  stream  of  the  Raab  wanted  deptli  and  breadth  suflkient 


238  TURKEY 

1664 

to  present  a  serious  obstacle  to  the  Turks.  Both  armies,  therefore, 
halted  and  prepared  for  the  battle  which  appeared  to  be  inevitable. 
Some  overtures  for  negotiation  first  took  place,  in  which  the  Turk- 
ish officers  behaved  with  the  utmost  arrogance.  When  Reningen, 
the  Austrian  envoy,  spoke  of  the  restoration  of  Neuhausel  to  the 
emperor,  the  Vizier  and  his  Pashas  laughed  at  him,  and  asked 
whether  anyone  had  ever  heard  of  the  Ottomans  voluntarily  giving 
up  a  conquest  to  the  Christians.  They  refused  to  admit  the  terms 
of  the  old  Treaty  of  Sitvatorok  as  a  basis  for  a  peace,  and  said  that 
peace  must  be  granted,  if  at  all,  on  principles  created  by  the  recent 
successes  of  the  Sublime  Porte.  Montecuculi  continued  his  prep- 
arations for  battle:  he  issued  careful  directions  to  his  troops,  par- 
ticularizing the  order  of  their  array,  the  relative  positions  of  each 
corps,  the  depth  of  the  lines,  and  the  disposal  of  the  baggage  and 
stores.  August  i,  1664,  saw  the  result  of  Montecuculi's  sage 
dispositions,  and  the  first  great  proof  that  the  balance  of  superi- 
ority between  the  Ottoman  and  Christian  arms  had  at  last  been 
changed. 

The  convent  of  St.  Gothard,  which  has  given  name  to  this 
memorable  battle,  is  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Raab,  at  a  little  dis- 
tance above  its  confluence  with  the  Laufritz.  A  space  of  level 
ground  extends  along  the  right  bank  of  the  Raab  westward  from 
the  convent  and  village  of  St.  Gothard  to  the  village  of  Windisch- 
dorf,  also  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  These  two  villages  formed 
the  extreme  wings  of  the  Turkish  position  before  the  battle.  Along 
the  left  bank  of  the  river  there  is  an  extent  of  level  ground  of  equal 
length  with  that  on  the  right  side,  but  of  much  greater  breadth ;  and 
it  was  here,  on  the  left  side,  that  the  conflict  took  place.  In  the 
center  of  the  plain,  on  the  left  side  (that  is  to  say  in  the  center  of 
the  imperialist  position)  stands  the  village  of  IMoggersdorf,  and 
immediately  opposite  to  Moggersdorf  the  river  bends  in  and  de- 
scribes an  arc  toward  the  southern  or  Turkish  side.  This  greatly 
facilitated  the  passage  of  the  river  by  the  Vizier,  as  he  was  enabled 
to  place  guns  in  battery  on  each  side  of  the  convex  of  the  stream, 
and  sweep  away  any  troops  that  disputed  the  landing  place  on  the 
other  bank,  in  the  center  of  the  bend  of  the  river.  Montecuculi 
placed  the  auxiliary  German  troops  of  the  empire  in  the  center  of 
his  line,  in  and  near  to  the  village  of  Moggersdorf.  The  Austrians 
and  Hungarians  were  in  his  right  wing;  the  French  auxiliaries 
formed  his  left.    The  Turks  had  a  large  superiority  in  numbers,  and 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  S39 

1664 

in  personal  courage  they  were  inferior  to  no  possible  antagonists. 
But  the  military  discipline  of  the  Turkish  soldiers  had  become 
lamentably  impaired  since  the  days  of  Suleiman,  when  it  com- 
manded the  envious  admiration  of  its  Christian  foes.  It  had  even 
declined  rapidly  since  the  time  when  the  last  great  battle  between 
Turk  and  German  was  fought  at  Cerestes  (1596).  The  deteriora- 
tion in  the  intelligence  and  skill  of  the  Ottoman  officers  was  still 
more  conspicuous.  On  the  opposite  side,  the  German  and  the  other 
armies  of  Western  Christendom  had  acquired  many  improvements 
in  their  weapons,  their  tactics,  and  their  general  military  organiza- 
tion during  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  which  had  called  into  action 
the  genius  of  such  commanders  as  Tilly,  Wallenstein,  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  Bernhard,  Torstenston,  Turenne,  and  Montecuculi  him- 
self. The  Turkish  artillery,  though  numerous,  was  now  cumbrous 
and  ill-served,  compared  with  the  German.  The  Janissaries  had 
given  up  the  use  of  the  pike  (which  seems  to  have  been  one  of  their 
weapons  in  Suleiman's  time),  and  the  Ottoman  army  was  entirely 
deficient  in  foot  brigades  of  steady  spearmen,  and  also  in  heavily- 
armed  regular  cavalry.  The  German  infantry  was  now  formed  of 
pikemen  and  of  musketeers;  and  part  of  their  horse  consisted  of 
heavy  cuirassier  regiments,  which,  in  Montecuculi's  judgment,  were 
sure,  if  a  fair  opportunity  of  charging  were  given  them,  to  ride 
down  Turkish  infantry  or  cavalry,  witliout  it  being  possible  for  any 
serious  resistance  to  be  offered  to  them.  In  that  great  general's 
opinion,  the  want  of  the  pike,  which  he  calls  "  the  queen  of 
weapons,"  was  the  fatal  defect  in  the  Turkish  military  system.  We 
shall  find  the  Chevalier  Folard,  half  a  century  afterward,  expressing 
a  similar  judgment  with  reference  to  the  negligence  of  the  Turks 
in  not  adopting  the  invention  of  the  bayonet. 

Montecuculi's  criticisms  on  the  defects  in  the  Turkish  armies 
were  written  by  him  after  the  battle  of  St.  Gothard ;  but  his  mili- 
tary sagacity  must  have  divined  them  as  soon  as  he  observed  the 
Vizier's  troops  and  made  trial  of  their  tactics  and  prowess  in  the 
early  operations  of  the  campaign.  But  the  Turks  themselves,  be- 
fore they  fought  at  St.  Gothard,  knew  not  their  own  deficiencies ; 
they  were  flushed  with  triumph  at  the  advantages  which  they  had 
hitherto  gained  under  Ahmed  Kiuprili ;  and  with  full  confidence  in 
their  chief  and  themselves,  they  advanced,  about  nine  in  the  morn- 
ing of  August  I,  1664,  to  the  Raab,  and  began  the  passage  of 
the  eventful  stream.     Kiuprili  had  placed  his  batteries  along  the 


240  TTRKEY 

1664 

sides  of  the  arc  of  the  stream,  which  has  already  been  described ; 
and  his  Janissaries,  who  were  drawn  up  in  the  Turkish  center, 
crossed  the  river  without  much  loss  and  attacked  and  carried  the 
village  of  Moggersdorf,  The  center  of  the  Christians  was  thus  com- 
pletely broken,  and  the  Ottomans  appeared  to  be  certain  of  victory, 
when  Montecuculi  brought  succor  from  the  right  wing.  Prince 
Charles  of  Lorraine,  who  in  this  battle  gave  the  prelude  of  his  long 
and  brilliant  career,  led  his  regiment  of  Austrian  heavy  cavalry  to 
the  charge  in  person,  and  killed  with  his  own  hand  the  commander 
of  the  Grand  Vizier's  guards.  The  advanced  troops  of  the  Turkish 
center,  thus  taken  in  flank  by  the  Austrian  cavalry,  were  driven  back 
to  the  Raab;  Moggersdorf  was  then  attacked  by  the  imperialists, 
and  set  on  fire;  but  the  Janissaries,  who  had  entrenched  themselves 
in  the  village,  refused  to  retreat  or  surrender,  and  kept  their  post 
till  tliey  perished  in  the  flames,  with  obstinacy  (says  Montecuculi) 
worthy  to  be  reflected  on  and  admired.  Kiuprili  brought  large  re- 
inforcements over  from  the  right  bank,  and  Montecuculi  now^  sent 
word  to  the  Count  of  Coligny  and  the  French  in  his  left  wing  that 
it  was  time  for  them  to  aid  him  with  all  their  might.  Coligny  sent 
him  instantly  looo  infantry  and  two  squadrons  of  cavalry,  under 
the  Due  de  la  Feuillade  and  Beauveze.  When  Kiuprili  saw  the 
French  coming  forward  with  their  shaven  chins  and  cheeks  and 
powdered  perruques,  he  asked  scornfully  of  one  of  his  attendants, 
"  Who  are  these  young  girls?  "  But  the  young  girls,  as  he  termed 
them,  without  regarding  the  formidable  Turkish  battle-cry  of 
"Allah!"  rushed  upon  the  Turks  and  cut  them  down,  shouting 
out  on  their  part,  "  Allans!  Allons!  Tiie!  Tiie!"  Those  Janis- 
saries who  escaped  that  carnage  remembered  long  afterward  the 
French  cry  of  "Allons!  Tiie!"  and  the  Due  de  la  Feuillade  w'as 
for  many  years  talked  of  in  their  barracks  as  "  Fuladi,"  which 
means  "  The  man  of  steel." 

Kiuprili's  first  attack  had  failed,  though  he  still  retained  some 
ground  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Raab.  It  w^as  now  near  noon  and  he 
l)repare(l  for  a  combined  attack,  such  as  he  ought  to  have  made  in 
the  first  instance,  upon  both  the  Christian  wings,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  assailed  their  center  with  greater  forces.  Four  large  masses 
of  irregular  Ottoman  cavalry  dashed  across  the  Raab  at  ]\ronte- 
cuculi's  right  wing:  three  similar  bodies  attacked  the  French 
on  the  left;  Kiii])i-ili  led  a  force  of  cavalry  and  infantry  upon  the 
center.     Meanwiiile,    detached    squadrons    were    ordered    to    pass 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  241 

1664 

the  river  at  points  a  little  distant  from  the  field  of  battle,  and 
gain  the  flanks  and  rear  of  the  imperialists.  An  obstinate  conflict 
now  took  place  all  along  the  line.  Some  parts  of  the  Christian  army 
gave  ground,  and  several  of  its  generals  advised  a  retreat ;  but 
Montecuculi  told  them  that  their  only  chance  of  safety,  as  well  as 
of  victory,  was  to  take  the  oiffensive  with  a  mass  of  the  best  troops 
and  make  a  desperate  charge  on  the  Ottoman  center.  A  strong 
force  of  the  Christian  cavalry  was  now  concentrated  for  this  pur- 
pose, and  the  word  was  passed  along  the  ranks  that  they  must 
break  the  Turks  or  perish.  John  Spork,  the  imperialist  general  of 
cavalry,  who  was  called  the  Austrian  Ajax,  prostrated  himself 
bareheaded  on  the  ground  in  front  of  his  men  and  prayed  aloud : 
"  Oh,  mighty  Generalissimo,  who  art  on  high,  if  thou  wilt  not  this 
day  help  thy  children  the  Christians,  at  least  do  not  help  these  dogs 
the  Turks,  and  thou  shalt  soon  see  something  that  will  please 
thee." 

Having  arranged  his  lines  for  the  decisive  charge,  Montecuculi 
gave  the  word,  and  the  imperialists  rushed  forward  with  a  loud 
shout,  which  disconcerted  the  Turks,  who,  accustomed  themselves 
to  terrify  their  enemy  by  their  battle-cry  and  to  give  the  attack, 
recoiled  before  the  unexpected  assault  of  their  opponents.  Thrown 
into  utter  confusion  by  the  irresistible  shock  of  Montecuculi's 
cuirassiers,  which  was  supported  vigorously  by  the  Christian 
musketeers  and  pikemen,  the  Ottomans  were  driven  into  the 
Raab — Janissary,  Spahi,  Albanian,  Tartar  going  down  alike  be- 
neath the  impetuous  rush  of  the  Christian  center,  or  flying  in  panic 
rout  before  it.  The  Ottoman  cavalry  in  the  wings  lost  courage  at 
seeing  the  defeat  of  their  center,  where  the  Vizier  and  all  their  best 
troops  were  stationed,  and  they  rode  off  the  field  without  an  effort 
to  retrieve  the  fortune  of  the  day.  IMore  than  16,000  Turks  perished 
in  the  battle ;  and  the  triumph  of  IMontecucuIi  was  graced  by  the 
capture  of  fifteen  pieces  of  cannon  and  forty  standards.  On  the 
morrow  the  victor  caused  a  solemn  service  of  thanksgiving  to  be 
celebrated  on  the  field  of  battle.  A  chapel  was  founded  there,  and 
still  attests  the  scene  of  this  memorable  battle,  which  commenced 
the  compensation  for  the  300  years  of  defeat  which  European 
Christendom  had  sustained  from  Turkey,  ever  since  the  day  when 
the  confederate  forces  of  Servia  and  Hungary  were  crushed  by 
Sultan  rMurad   T.  at   Kosovo. 

It  is  because  the  battle  of  St.  Gothard  presents  thus  to  our 


242  TURKEY 

1664 

notice  a  turning  point  in  the  military  history  of  Turkey  that  it  has 
been  described  with  a  particularity  of  detail  such  as  can  be  given 
to  none  of  the  long  list  of  battles  which  yet  will  come  before  our 
notice  while  tracing  the  declining  fortunes  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 
The  advantage  also  of  possessing  the  comments  of  Montecuculi 
himself  on  this  campaign,  and  on  Turkish  warfare  generally,  has 
been  an  additional  reason  for  giving  prominence  to  his  victory  at 
St.  Gothard.  The  defects  which  he  points  out  in  the  Turkish  mili- 
tary system  continued  to  exist  until  the  reign  of  the  Sultan  Mah- 
mud  II.  They  may  be  summed  up  as  consisting  in  the  neglect  of 
the  Turks  to  keep  pace  with  the  improvements  made  by  other  na- 
tions in  the  weapons  and  in  the  art  of  war,  and  in  the  appointment 
of  incompetent  officers  through  bribery  and  other  corrupt  influ- 
ences. The  pernicious  effects  of  these  vices  of  the  Ottoman  war 
department  have  been  partly  counteracted  by  the  remarkable  per- 
sonal valor  of  the  common  soldiers  among  the  Turks,  their  sobriety, 
and  the  vigor  of  their  constitutions,  and  also  by  the  care  taken  to 
provide  them  with  good  and  sufficient  provisions  both  when  in 
barracks  and  when  employed  on  active  duty.  These  are  favorable 
points  in  the  Ottoman  service  which  every  military  critic  from 
Count  Montecuculi  down  to  Marshal  Marmont  has  observed;  and 
the  more  important  of  them,  those  which  regard  the  natural 
soldierly  qualities  of  the  Ottoman  population,  show  that  Turkey 
has  never  lost  that  element  of  military  greatness  which  no  artificial 
means  can  create  or  revive,  but  to  which  the  skill  of  great  statesmen 
and  great  generals,  if  the  Sultan's  empire  should  be  blessed  with 
them,  may  superadd  all  that  has  for  more  than  two  centuries  been 
deficient. 

The  immediate  result  of  the  battle  of  St.  Gothard  was  a  truce 
for  twenty  years  on  the  footing  of  the  Treaty  of  Sitvatorok,  which 
the  Turks  before  their  defeat  had  so  arrogantly  refused.  But 
Neuhausel  remained  in  the  possession  of  the  Ottomans,  so  that 
Ahmed  Kiuprili,  notwithstanding  his  great  overthrow  by  Montecu- 
culi, was  able  to  reenter  Constantinople  as  a  conqueror.  His  influ- 
ence over  the  Sultan  was  undiminished,  and  the  next  great  military 
enterprise  that  Kiuprili  undertook  was  one  of  uncheckered  success 
and  glory.  This  was  the  reduction  of  the  city  of  Candia,  which  had 
now  for  nearly  twenty  years  been  vainly  besieged  or  blockaded  by 
the  Turks.  Mohammed  IV.  at  first  proposed  to  lead  in  person  the 
great  armament  which  Kiuprili  collected  at  Adrianople  for  this  ex- 


AGE     OF     GREAT     VIZIERS  243 

1664-1669 

pedition.  The  imperial  tent  was  raised  in  the  camp,  and  the  Sultan 
caused  to  be  read  before  him  the  accounts  of  the  Turkish  historians 
which  narrate  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  Mohammed  II.,  the 
battle  of  Calderan  under  Selim  I.,  and  the  sieges  of  Rhodes  and 
Belgrade  by  Suleiman.  But  Mohammed  IV.  appeased  the  martial 
ardor  which  those  recitals  produced  in  him  by  hunting  with  re- 
doubled energy.  It  was  only  in  the  chase  that  he  was  enterprising 
and  bold;  he  shrank  from  the  battle-field,  and  he  was  not  even  a 
hero  in  his  harem,  where  a  Greek  slave-girl  of  Retino  tyrannized 
with  capricious  violence  over  the  overfond  and  overconstant 
Padishah.  This  favorite  Sultana  was  zealously  devoted  to  the  in- 
terests of  Kiuprili,  who  was  thereby  rendered  so  secure  in  his  au- 
thority that  he  ventured  to  remain  in  the  island  of  Candia  from 
the  time  of  his  landing  there  in  1666  to  the  surrender  of  the  long- 
besieged  capital  in  1669.  During  these  last  three  years  of  the  siege 
every  possible  effort  of  bravery  and  all  the  then  available  resources 
of  the  military  art  were  employed  both  by  assailants  and  defenders. 
Morosini  (afterward  renowned  as  the  conqueror  of  the  Morea,  and 
surnamed  the  Peloponnesian)  commanded  in  the  city,  ably  seconded 
by  the  Due  de  la  Feuillade,  the  hero  of  St.  Gothard,  and  many  other 
high-born  and  high-spirited  volunteers,  who  flocked  from  every 
country  of  Christendom  to  Candia,  as  the  great  theater  of  military 
glory.  On  the  Turkish  side,  Kiuprili  and  his  generals  and  admirals 
urged  on  the  operations  of  the  besiegers  by  sea  and  by  land  with 
indomitable  obstinacy,  and  with  a  degree  of  engineering  skill  from 
which  the  Turks  of  more  recent  times  have  far  degenerated.  It  is 
computed  that  during  the  final  thirty-four  months  of  the  siege 
in  which  Kiuprili  commanded,  30,000  Turks  and  12,000  Venetians 
were  killed.  There  were  fifty-six  assaults  and  ninety-six  sorties, 
and  the  number  of  mines  exploded  on  both  sides  was  1364.  Several 
attempts  were  made  by  the  Venetians  to  purchase  peace  without 
ceding  Candia.  But  to  their  offers  of  large  sums  of  money  Kiuprili 
replied :  "  We  are  not  money-dealers ;  we  make  war  to  win  Candia, 
and  at  no  price  will  we  abandon  it."  The  Ottomans  persevered 
in  their  enterprise,  until  Morosini,  on  September  6,  1669,  surren- 
dered on  honorable  terms  the  city  which  the  incessant  mining 
had  converted  into  a  confused  mass  of  gigantic  mole-heaps.  A  peace 
was  made  between  Venice  and  the  Porte,  by  which  the  city  and 
island  of  Candia  became  the  property  of  the  Sultan.  Kiuprili  re- 
mained there  several  months  after  the  conquest  was  completed,  dur- 


244  TURKEY 

1669-1672 

ing  which  time  he  was  well  and  wisely  employed  in  organizing  the 
local  government  of  Crete  under  its  new  sovereign. 

The  next  scene  of  warlike  operations  on  which  Ahmed  Kiuprili 
entered  deserves  especial  attention,  because  it  brings  us  to  the  rival 
claims  of  Poland,  Russia,  and  Turkey  to  dominion  over  the  Cos- 
sacks, and  is  intimately  connected  with  the  long  and  still  enduring 
chain  of  hostilities  between  the  Russian  and  Turkish  Empires.  The 
Cossacks  of  the  Don  had  become  subjects  of  Ivan  the  Terrible,  Czar 
of  Moscow,  in  1549;  but  the  Cossacks  of  the  Dnieper  and  the 
Ukraine  were  long  independent,  and  their  first  connection  was  with 
Poland.  The  Poles  affected  to  consider  them  as  vassals,  but  the 
wisest  Polish  rulers  were  cautious  in  the  amount  of  authority  which 
they  attempted  to  exercise  over  these  bold  and  hardy  tribes.  The 
imperious  tyranny  of  other  less  prudent  sovereigns  of  Poland  was 
met  by  fierce  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  Cossacks,  who  called  in 
their  former  constant  enemies,  the  Tartars,  to  aid  them  against  their 
new  Polish  oppressors.  Deserted,  after  some  years  of  warfare,  by 
the  Tartars,  the  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine  appealed  to  the  Russian 
Czar  Alexis.  Many  years  of  checkered  and  sanguinary  hostilities 
followed,  and  at  last  the  Cossack  territory  was  nominally  divided 
between  Russia  and  Poland  at  the  Truce  of  Andrusshovo,  in  1667. 
But  the  Cossacks  who  dwelt  near  the  mouths  of  the  Rivers  Boug 
and  Dnieper,  and  who  were  called  the  Zaporogian  Cossacks,  refused 
to  be  included  in  the  Polish  dominions  by  virtue  of  that  arrange- 
ment, and  placed  themselves  under  the  protection  of  the  Czar.  In 
1670  the  Cossacks  of  that  part  of  the  Ukraine  which  had  been  left 
under  Poland  petitioned  the  Polish  Diet  for  certain  privileges, 
which  were  refused,  and  a  Polish  army  under  Sobieski  was  sent 
into  the  Ukraine  to  coerce  the  Cossack  malcontents.  The  Cossacks, 
under  their  Hetman  Doroshenko,  resisted  bravely ;  but  at  last  they 
determined  to  seek  the  protection  of  the  Sublime  Porte,  and 
Doroshenko,  in  1672,  presented  himself  at  Constantinople,  and  re- 
ceived a  banner  with  two  horse-tails,  as  Sanjak  Beg  of  the  Ukraine, 
which  was  immediately  enrolled  among  the  Ottoman  provinces.  At 
the  same  time,  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  was  ordered  to  support  the 
Cossacks,  and  6000  Turkish  troops  were  marched  to  the  Ukraine. 
The  Poles  protested  loudly  against  these  measures.  The  Czar  added 
his  remonstrances,  and  threatened  to  join  Poland  in  a  war  against 
Turkey.  The  Grand  Vizier  haughtily  replied  that  such  threats  were 
empty  words  and  (nil  of  place,  and  that  the  Porte  would  preserve  its 


AGE     OF    GREAT     VIZIERS  245 

1672-1676 

determination  with  regard  to  Poland.  A  short  time  previously 
another  Turkish  minister  had  answered  similar  warnings  by  boast- 
ing, "  God  be  praised,  such  is  the  strength  of  Islam,  that  the  union 
of  Russians  and  Poles  matters  not  to  us.  Our  empire  has  increased 
in  might  since  its  origin ;  nor  have  all  the  Christian  kings,  that  have 
leagued  against  us,  been  able  to  pluck  a  hair  from  our  beard.  With 
God's  grace  it  shall  ever  be  so,  and  our  empire  shall  endure  to  the 
day  of  judgment." 

In  the  Polish  campaign  of  1672  Sultan  Mohammed  IV.  was 
persuaded  to  accompany  the  powerful  army  which  Kiuprili  led  to 
the  siege  of  the  important  city  of  Kaminiets,  in  Podolia.  Kaminiets 
fell  after  nine  days'  siege,  on  August  26,  1672,  and  Lemberg 
shared  its  fate  on  September  9.  The  imbecile  King  of  Poland, 
Michael,  then  made  the  Peace  of  Busacz  with  the  Turks,  by 
which  Poland  was  to  cede  Podolia  and  the  Ukraine  and  pay 
an  annual  tribute  to  the  Porte  of  220,000  ducats.  The  Sultan  re- 
turned in  triumph  to  Adrianople;  but  the  congratulations  which 
were  lavished  on  him  as  conqueror  of  the  Poles  w^ere  premature. 
Sobieski  and  the  other  chiefs  of  the  Polish  nobility  determined  to 
break  the  treaty  which  their  king  had  made.  They  refused  to  pay 
the  stipulated  tribute,  and  in  1673  ^^^^  Grand  Vizier  made  prepara- 
tions for  renewing  the  war  upon  the  Poles,  and  also  for  attacking 
the  Czar  of  Russia,  from  whom  they  had  received  assistance.  The 
Turks  marched  again  into  Podolia;  but  on  November  11,  1673, 
Sobieski,  who  now  led  the  Poles,  surprised  the  Turkish  camp 
near  Chotim  and  routed  Kiuprili  with  immense  slaughter.  The 
Princes  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia  had  deserted  from  the  Turkish 
to  the  Polish  side  with  all  their  contingents,  a  transfer  of  strength 
which  aided  materially  in  obtaining  Sobieski's  victory.  But  Kiu- 
prili's  administrative  skill  had  so  reinvigorated  the  resources  of 
Turkey  that  she  readily  sent  fresh  forces  into  the  Ukraine  in  the 
following  year.  Sobieski  with  his  Poles  and  the  Russians  (who 
now  took  an  active  part  in  the  war)  had  the  advantage  in  the  cam- 
paign of  1674 ;  and  in  1675  Sobieski  gained  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
victories  of  the  age  over  tlie  Turks  at  Lemberg.  But  the  superior 
strength  and  steadiness  of  the  Porte  and  Kiuprili  in  maintaining  the 
war  against  the  discordant  government  of  Poland  were  felt  year 
after  year,  and  in  1676  the  Turkish  commander  in  Podolia,  Ibra- 
him, surnamed  Sheitan.  that  is,  "  Ibrahim  the  Devil,"  made  himself 
completely  master  of  Podcjlia  and  attacked  Galicia.     Sobieski  (who 


246  TURKEY 

1676-1677 

was  now  King-  of  Poland)  fought  gallantly  with  far  inferior 
forces  against  Ibrahim  at  Zurawna,  but  was  glad  to  conclude  a 
peace,  October  17,  1676,  by  which  the  Turks  were  to  retain 
Kaminiets  and  Podolia,  and  by  which  the  Ukraine,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  a  few  specified  places,  was  to  be  under  the  sovereignty 
of  the  Sultan. 

Three  days  after  the  Peace  of  Zurawna  Ahmed  Kiuprili  died. 
Though  his  defeats  at  St.  Gothard  and  Chotim  had  fairly  given  rise 
to  an  opinion  among  the  Ottoman  ranks  that  their  Vizier  was  not 
born  to  be  a  general,  his  military  services  to  the  empire,  for  which 
he  won  Candia,  Neuhausel,  and  Kaminiets,  were  considerable ;  and 
no  minister  ever  did  more  than  he  accomplished  in  repressing  in- 
surrection and  disorder,  in  maintaining  justice  and  good  govern- 
ment, and  in  restoring  the  financial  and  military  strength  of  his 
country.  He  did  all  this  without  oppression  or  cruelty.  He  pro- 
tected all  ranks  of  the  Sultan's  subjects;  he  was  a  liberal  patron  of 
literature  and  art;  he  was  a  warm  friend,  and  a  not  implacable 
enemy;  he  was  honorably  true  to  his  plighted  word  toward  friend 
or  foe,  toward  small  or  great :  and  there  is  far  less  than  the  usual 
amount  of  Oriental  exaggeration  in  the  praises  which  the  Turkish 
historians  bestow  upon  him  as  "  The  light  and  splendor  of  the 
nation;  the  conservator  and  governor  of  good  laws;  the  vicar  of 
the  shadow  of  God ;  the  thrice  learned  and  all-accomplished  Grand 
Vizier." 


Chapter  XVI 

KARA  MUSTAPHA  AND   THE  SEIGE  OF  VIENNA 

1685 

THE  value  of  such  a  minister  as  Ahmed  KiupriH  to  Turkey 
was  soon  proved  by  the  rapid  deterioration  in  her  fortunes 
under  his  successor  in  the  Vizierate,  Kara  Mustapha,  or 
Black  Mustapha,  a  man  whose  character  was  in  every  respect  the 
opposite  of  Kiuprili's,  and  who  to  slender  abilities  united  the  wild- 
est ambition  and  almost  boundless  presumption.  He  was  son-in- 
law  to  the  Sultan,  and  by  the  influence  which  that  marriage  gave 
him  he  obtained  the  high  office  which  he  abused  to  the  ruin  of  his 
master  and  the  deep  disaster  of  his  country.  Kara  Mustapha's 
favorite  project  was  a  new  war  against  Austria,  in  which  he  hoped 
to  capture  Vienna  and  to  make  himself  the  nominal  viceroy  but 
real  sovereign  of  ample  provinces  between  the  Danube  and  the 
Rhine.  But  the  first  years  of  his  Vizierate  were  occupied  in  an 
inglorious  war  with  Russia.  That  empire  had  been  no  party  to  the 
late  Peace  of  Zurawna,  and  it  supported  Doroshenko  against  the 
Porte  when  that  fickle  Cossack  grew  discontented  with  the  Sultan's 
authority,  Kara  Mustapha  led  a  large  army  into  the  Ukraine  and 
besieged  Tchigirin.  but  was  beaten  by  the  Russians  and  fled  with 
ignominy  across  the  Danube.  In  the  following  year  he  resumed 
the  war  with  fresh  forces,  and  after  several  alternatives  of  fortune 
he  stormed  Tchigirin  on  August  21,  1678.  But  the  losses  which 
the  Turks  sustained  both  from  the  Russian  sword  and  the  climate 
were  severe ;  and  it  is  said  that  even  at  this  early  period  of  the 
wars  between  the  two  nations  the  Turks  entertained  an  instinc- 
tive apprehension  of  the  power  of  the  ]\Iuscovites.  A  peace  was 
made  in  1681,  by  which  the  Porte  gave  up  the  disputed  terri- 
tory to  Russia,  and  it  was  stipulated  that  neither  power  should 
raise  fortifications  between  the  Rivers  Boug  and  Dniester.  Five 
years  afterward  a  territorial  arrangement  was  concluded  between 
Poland  and  Russia  which  recognized  the  sovereignty  of  the  Czar 
over  the  whole  of  the  Ukraine. 

247 


•248  TURKEY 

1G82-1683 

In  1682  Kara  Mustaplia  commenced  his  fatal  enterprise  against 
Vienna.  A  revolt  of  the  Hungarians  under  Count  Tekeh  against 
Austria,  which  had  been  caused  by  the  bigoted  tyranny  of  the  Em- 
peror Leopold,  now  laid  the  heart  of  that  empire  open  to  attack; 
and  a  force  was  collected  by  the  Grand  Vizier,  which,  if  ably 
handled,  might  have  given  the  house  of  Hapsburg  its  death-blow. 
Throughout  the  autumn  of  1682  and  the  spring  of  1683  regular 
and  irregular  troops,  both  horse,  foot,  artillery,  and  all  kinds  of 
munitions  of  war,  were  collected  in  the  camp  at  Adrianople  on  a 
scale  of  grandeur  that  attested  and  almost  exhausted  the  copiousness 
which  the  administration  of  Kiuprili  had  given  to  the  Turkish  re- 
sources. The  strength  of  the  forces  which  Kara  Mustapha  led  to 
Vienna  is  known  from  the  muster-roll  which  was  found  in  his  tent 
after  the  siege.  It  amounted  to  275,000  men.^  It  is  probable  that 
not  less  than  half  a  million  of  men  were  set  in  motion  in  this  last 
great  aggressive  effort  of  the  Ottomans  against  Christendom.  The 
Emperor  Leopold  had  neither  men  nor  money  sufficient  to  enable 
him  to  confront  such  a  deluge  of  invasion,  and  after  many  entreaties 
he  obtained  a  promise  of  help  from  John  III.  Sobieski,  King  of 
Poland,  whom  he  had  previously  treated  with  contumely  -and  neg- 
lect. Poland  was  at  peace  with  Turkey,  nor  had  the  Porte 
in  any  way  failed  in  observance  of  the  recent  treaty.  But  neither 
Sobieski  nor  other  Christian  adversaries  of  the  Turks  were  very 
scrupulous  as  to  such  obligations,  and  the  Polish  king  promised  to 
aid  the  Austrian  emperor  with  58,000  men.  The  Turkish  army  pro- 
ceeded along  the  western  side  of  the  Danube  from  Belgrade  and 
reached  Vienna  without  experiencing  any  serious  check,  though  a 
gallant  resistance  was  made  by  some  of  the  strong  places  which  it 
besieged  during  its  advance.  The  city  of  Vienna  was  garrisoned  by 
11,000  men  under  Count  Stahremberg,  who  proved  himself  a 
worthy  successor  of  the  Count  Salm  who  had  fulfilled  the  same 
duty  when  the  city  was  besieged  by  Sultan  Suleiman.  The  second 
siege  of  Vienna  lasted  from  July  15  to  September  12,  1683, 
during  which  the  most  devoted  heroism  was  displayed  by  both 
the  garrison  and  the  inhabitants.  The  numerous  artillery  of 
the  Turks  shattered  the  walls  and  bastions,  and  the  indefatigable 
labors  of  their  miners  were  still  more  effective.  The  garrison  was 
gradually  wasted  by  the  numerous  assaults  which  it  was  called  on 

1  Probably  less  than  half  this  number  were  fighting  men.    Enormous  swarms 
i)f  camp-followers  acconii)unied  the  Turkish  armies  at  this  time. — Ed. 


SIEGE    OF     VIENNA  249 

1633 

to  repulse,  and  in  the  frequent  sorties  by  which  the  Austrian  com- 
mander sought  to  impede  the  progress  of  the  besiegers.  Kara 
Mustapha,  at  the  end  of  August,  had  it  in  his  power  to  carry  the 
city  by  storm,  if  he  had  thought  fit  to  employ  his  vast  forces  in  a 
general  assault,  and  to  continue  it  from  day  to  day,  as  Murad  IV. 
had  done  when  Bagdad  fell.  But  the  Vizier  kept  the  Turkish  troops 
back  out  of  avarice,  in  the  hope  that  the  city  would  come  into  his 
power  by  capitulation ;  in  which  case  he  would  himself  be  enriched 
by  the  wealth  of  Vienna,  whereas  if  taken  by  storm  the  city 
would  become  the  booty  of  the  soldiery.  The  Turkish  army  mur- 
mured loudly  at  the  incompetency,  the  selfishness,  and  the  vain  con- 
fidence of  their  chief,  who  took  no  measure  for  checking  the 
approach  of  the  relieving  army  that  was  known  to  be  on  its  march, 
though  the  passage  of  the  Danube  might  easily  have  been  guarded 
against  Sobieski  by  a  detachment  from  the  immense  forces  which 
were  at  the  Grand  Vizier's  command. 

Sobieski  had  been  unable  to  assemble  his  troops  before  the  end 
of  August,  and  even  then  they  only  amounted  to  20,000  men.  But 
he  was  joined  by  the  Duke  of  Lorraine  and  some  of  the  German 
commanders,  who  were  at  the  head  of  a  considerable  army,  and  the 
Polish  King  crossed  the  Danube  at  Tulm,  above  Vienna,  with  about 
70,000  men.  He  then  wheeled  round  behind  the  Kalemberg  Moun- 
tains to  the  northwest  of  Vienna,  with  the  design  of  taking  the 
besiegers  in  the  rear.  The  Vizier  took  no  heed  of  him ;  nor  was  any 
opposition  made  to  the  progress  of  the  relieving  army  through  the 
difficult  country  which  it  was  obliged  to  traverse.  On  Septem- 
ber 1 1  the  Poles  were  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Kalemberg ;  and 
"  from  this  hill,"  says  Coyer,  the  biographer  of  Sobieski,  "  the 
Christians  were  presented  with  one  of  the  finest  and  most  dreadful 
prospects  of  the  greatness  of  human  power:  an  immense  plain  and 
all  the  islands  of  the  Danube  covered  with  pavilions,  whose  magnifi- 
cence seemed  rather  calculated  for  an  encampment  of  pleasure  than 
the  hardships  of  war;  an  innumerable  multitude  of  horses,  camels, 
and  buffaloes ;  2,000,000  men  -  all  in  motion,  swarms  of  Tartars  dis- 
persed along  the  foot  of  the  mountain  in  their  usual  confusion ;  the 
fire  of  the  besiegers  incessant  and  terrible,  and  that  of  the  besieged 
such  as  they  could  contrive  to  make  ;  in  fine,  a  great  city,  distinguish- 
able only  by  the  tops  of  the  steeples  and  the  fire  and  smoke  that 
covered  it." 

2  This  is  of  course  a  gross  exaggeration. 


250  TURKEY 

1683 

But  Sobieski  was  well  accustomed  to  the  menacing"  aspect  of 
Turkish  armies;  his  eagle  glance  saw  instantly  the  Vizier's  want 
of  military  skill,  and  the  exposure  of  the  long  lines  of  the  Ottoman 
camp  to  a  sudden  and  fatal  attack.  "  This  man,"  said  he,  "  is  badly 
encamped :  he  knows  nothing  of  war ;  we  shall  certainly  beat  him." 
And  in  a  letter  sent  by  him  to  the  Queen  of  Poland  on  the  night  be- 
fore the  battle  he  wrote  these  words :  "  We  can  easily  see  that  the 
general  of  an  army,  who  has  neither  thought  of  entrenching  himself 
nor  concentrating  his  forces,  but  lies  encamped  as  if  we  were  one 
hundred  miles  from  him,  is  predestined  to  be  beaten." 

The  ground  through  which  Sobieski  had  to  move  down  from 
the,  Kalemberg  was  broken  by  ravines,  and  was  so  difficult  for  the 
passage  of  the  troops  that  Kara  Mustapha  might,  by  an  able  dis- 
position of  part  of  his  forces,  have  long  kept  the  Poles  in  check, 
especially  as  Sobieski,  in  his  hasty  march,  had  brought  but  a  small 
part  of  his  artillery  to  the  scene  of  action.  But  the  Vizier  displayed 
the  same  infatuation  and  imbecility  that  had  marked  his  conduct 
throughout  the  campaign.  He  at  first  refused  to  believe  that 
Sobieski  and  any  considerable  number  of  Polish  troops  were  on  the 
Kalemberg;  and,  when  at  last  convinced  that  an  attack  would  be 
made  upon  his  lines,  he  long  delayed  the  necessary  order  for  the 
occupation  of  the  hollow  ways  through  which  alone  the  Poles  could 
debouch  from  the  slopes  of  the  high  ground  which  they  had  gained. 
Unwilling  to  resign  Vienna,  Mustapha  left  the  chief  part  of  his 
Janissary  force  in  the  trenches  before  the  city,  and  led  the  rest  of 
his  army  toward  the  hills  down  which  Sobieski  and  his  troops  were 
advancing.  In  some  parts  of  the  field  where  the  Turks  had  partially 
entrenched  the  roads  their  resistance  to  the  Christians  was  ob- 
stinate ;  but  Sobieski  led  on  his  best  troops  in  person  in  a  direct  line 
for  the  Ottoman  center,  where  the  Vizier's  tent  was  conspicuous, 
and  the  terrible  presence  of  the  victor  of  Chotim  was  soon  recog- 
nized. "  By  Allah !  the  king  is  really  among  us,"  exclaimed  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea,  Selim  Ghirai,  and  turned  his  horse's  head  for 
flight.  The  mass  of  the  Ottoman  army  broke  and  fled  in  ho^^eless 
rout,  hurrying  Kara  IVIustapha  with  them  from  the  field.  The 
Janissaries,  who  had  been  left  in  the  trenches  before  the  city,  were 
now  attacked  both  by  the  garrison  and  the  Poles,  and  were  cut  to 
pieces.  The  camp,  the  whole  artillery,  and  the  military  stores  of 
the  Ottomans  became  the  spoil  of  the  conquerors,  and  never  was 
there  a  victory  more   complete,    or    signalized    by    more    splendid 


JDIIX      S()i;iK>KI,      KIX(,     OF     I'OLAM),      MCCulO     iHh      H  AKI)-rKK>>KII     (iHXT 
Vl).\     ^TAIIKKM  ISKKC.    AXI)    KAISKS    T 1 1  K    SIi;r;K    I  )F    ViKXXA 

JJi-urrnii;    by    Alfred    Mucha 


SIEGE     OF     VIENNA  251 

1683-1687 

trophies.  The  Turks  continued  their  panic  flight  as  far  as  Raab. 
There  Kara  Mustapha  collected  round  him  some  of  the  wrecks  of 
the  magnificent  army  which  had  followed  him  to  Vienna.  He 
sought  to  vent  his  fury  by  executing  some  of  the  best  Turkish  offi- 
cers who  had  differed  from  him  during  the  campaign.  His  own 
fate,  when  he  was  executed  by  the  Sultan's  orders  a  few  weeks 
afterward  at  Belgrade,  excited  neither  surprise  nor  pity. 

The  great  destruction  of  the  Turks  before  Vienna  was  raptur- 
ously hailed  throughout  Christendom  as  the  announcement  of  the 
approaching  downfall  of  the  Mohammedan  Empire  in  Europe.  The 
Russians  and  the  Venetians  declared  war  against  the  Porte ;  and 
Turkey  was  now  assailed  on  almost  every  point  of  her  European 
frontiers.  The  new  Grand  Vizier  Ibrahim  strove  hard  to  recruit 
the  armies  and  supply  the  deficiency  in  the  magazines  which  the 
fatal  campaign  of  his  predecessors  had  occasioned.  But  city  after 
city  was  now  rent  rapidly  away  from  Islam  by  the  exulting  and  ad- 
vancing Christians.  The  imperialist  armies,  led  by  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  captured  Gran,  Neuhausel,  Buda,  Szegedin,  and  nearly 
all  the  strong  places  which  the  Turks  had  held  in  Hungary.  The 
Venetians  were  almost  equally  successful  on  the  Dalmatian  frontier; 
and  the  Republic  of  St.  Mark  now  landed  its  troops  in  Greece,  un- 
der Morosini.  who  rapidly  made  himself  master  of  Coron,  Navarino, 
Nauplia,  Corinth,  Athens,  and  other  chief  cities  of  that  important 
part  of  the  Turkish  Empire.  In  Poland  the  war  was  waged  less 
vigorousl3\  nor  did  tlie  Turks  yet  relinquish  their  hold  on  Kaminiets. 
But  a  great  defeat  which  the  main  Ottoman  army  sustained  on 
August  12,  1687,  at  Mohacs,  on  the  very  scene  of  Suleiman's 
ancient  glory,  excited  the  discontent  of  the  soldiery  into  in- 
surrection against  the  Sultan,  and  on  November  8,  in  that  year, 
Mohammed  IV.  was  deposed,  in  the  forty-sixth  year  of  his  age  and 
thirty-eighth  of  his  reign. 

In  the  reign  of  Mohammed  IV.  an  innovation  on  the  ancient 
stern  institutions  of  the  empire  was  completed,  which  also  was 
probably  caused  as  much  by  weakness  as  by  humanity.  It  was  in 
1675,  in  the  last  year  of  the  Vizierate  of  Ahmed  Kiuprili,  that  the 
final  levy  of  3000  boys  for  the  recruiting  of  the  Turkish  army  was 
made  on  the  Christian  population  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  in  Europe, 
The  old  system  of  filling  the  ranks  of  the  Janissaries  exclusively 
with  compulsory  conscripts  and  converts  from  among  the  children 
of  the  Rayas  had  been  less  and  less  rigidly  enforced  since  the  time 


252  TURKEY 

1675 

of  Murad  IV.  Admission  into  the  corps  of  Janissaries  now  con- 
ferred many  civil  as  well  as  military  advantages,  so  that  it  was 
eagerly  sought  by  men  who  were  of  Turkish  origin  and  born  to  the 
Mohammedan  faith.  The  first  measure  of  relaxation  of  the  old 
rule  was  to  treat  those  who  were  the  children  of  Janissaries  as 
eligible  candidates  for  enrollment.  Other  Mussulman  volunteers 
were  soon  received,  and  the  levies  of  the  tribute  of  children  from 
the  Christians  grew  less  frequent  and  less  severe,  though  they  were 
still  occasionally  resorted  to  in  order  to  supply  the  thousands  of 
pages,  who  were  required  to  people  the  vast  chambers  of  the  Serail, 
and  who  were  in  case  of  emergency  drafted  into  the  army  of  the 
state.  But  ever  since  the  year  1675  ^^^^  Rayas  of  the  empire  have 
been  entirely  free  from  the  terrible  tax  of  flesh  and  blood  by  which 
the  Ottoman  military  force  was  sustained  during  its  early  centuries 
of  conquest.  With  this  change  in  the  constitution  of  the  corps  of 
Janissaries,  the  numbers  of  that  force  were  greatly  increased :  large 
bodies  of  them  were  now  settled  with  their  families  in  the  chief 
cities  of  the  empire,  where  they  engaged  in  different  trades  and 
occupations. 

Though  still  able  to  contend  at  sea  with  such  an  enemy  as 
Venice,  the  Sublime  Porte  had  seen  a  still  greater  decline  take  place 
in  its  naval  power  than  in  its  military,  compared  with  the  state  of 
its  fleets  and  armies  in  the  days  of  the  great  Suleiman.  This  was 
principally  caused  by  the  progress  of  carelessness  and  corruption  in 
the  navy-boards  and  arsenals  at  Constantinople ;  but  much  of  it  was 
due  to  the  Sultan's  losing  that  firm  hold  on  the  resources  of  the 
Mohammedan  powers  of  North  Africa  which  his  great  ancestor 
possessed  when  Barbarossa  and  Dragut  executed  his  bidding  with 
the  fleets  of  Tripoli,  Tunis,  and  Algiers. 

The  Barbaresque  regencies  had  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  become  practically  independent  states.  They  some- 
times sent  naval  succor  to  the  Porte  in  its  wars;  but  this  was  done 
rather  in  a  spirit  of  voluntary  good  will  and  recognition  of  com- 
munity of  creed  and  origin,  similar  to  that  which  formerly  made 
Cartilage  give  occasional  aid  to  Tyre,  than  out  of  the  obedient  sub- 
ordination of  proxincial  governments  to  central  authority.  The 
strength  and  audacity  of  these  piratical  states,  especially  of  Algiers, 
had  s(j  increased  tliat  not  only  did  their  squadrons  ravage  the 
Christian  coasts  of  ilie  Mediterranean,  but  their  cruisers  carried  on 
tlicir  depredations  beyond  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  both  northward 


SIEGE     OF     VIENNA  253 

1655-1687 

and  southward  in  the  Atlantic.  They  pillaged  the  island  of  Ma- 
deira; they  infested  the  western  parts  of  the  English  Channel  and 
the  Irish  Sea  for  many  years;  and  the  Algerine  rovers  more  than 
once  landed  in  Ireland,  and  sacked  towns  and  villages,  and  carried 
off  captives  into  slavery.  They  even  ventured  as  far  as  Iceland  and 
Scandinavia,  as  if  in  retaliation  for  the  exploits  of  the  old  Norse 
sea  kings  in  the  Mediterranean  seven  centuries  before.  Algiers 
had  a  marine  force  comprising,  besides  light  galleys,  more  than 
forty  well-built  and  well-equipped  ships,  each  manned  by  from  300 
to  400  corsairs  and  mounting  from  forty  to  fifty  gims.  The  num- 
ber of  Christians  who  toiled  in  slavery  in  the  dockyards  and  ar- 
senals at  Algiers  or  at  the  oar  in  ker  fleets  fluctuated  from  between 
10,000  to  20,000.  Tunis  and  Tripoli  had  their  fleets  and  their 
slaves,  though  on  a  smaller  scale.  The  English  admiral  Blake  tamed 
the  savage  pride  of  these  barbarians  in  1655.  He  awed  the  Dey  of 
Algiers  into  the  surrender  of  all  his  English  prisoners,  and  when 
the  Dey  of  Tunis  refused  to  do  the  same,  Blake  burned  the  pirate 
fleet  under  the  guns  of  the  town,  destroyed  the  forts,  and  compelled 
obedience  to  his  demands.  The  Dutch  admiral  De  Ruyter  and  the 
French  admiral  De  Beaufort  also  at  different  times  punished  the 
insolence  of  the  Barbary  corsairs ;  but  their  outrages  and  cruelties 
were  never  entirely  quelled  till  Lord  Exmouth's  bombardment  of 
Algiers  in  the  last  century.  In  1663  England  concluded  a  treaty 
with  Algiers  and  the  Porte  by  which  she  was  to  be  at  liberty  to 
chastise  the  Algerines,  when  they  broke  their  engagements,  without 
its  being  considered  a  breach  of  amity  between  England  and  Turkey. 
The  rulers  of  the  Barbaresque  States  styled  themselves  Dahis  or 
Deys.  According  to  some  authorities,  the  Algerine  chiefs  termed 
themselves  Deys  as  delegates  of  the  Sultan.  According  to  others, 
the  title  came  from  the  old  Asiatic  word  Dahi,  which  signified  a 
superior,  even  at  the  time  of  the  ancient  republic  of  j\Iecca,  and 
afterward  among  the  Ishmaelites.  They  were  elected  by  the  mili- 
tary body,  consisting  of  the  descendants  of  the  Janissaries  and 
others  of  Turkish  race.  They  used  to  apply  to  the  Sultan  for  his 
firman  appointing  them  Pashas,  and  confirming  their  election;  but 
this  soon  became  a  mere  formality. 

Although  his  immoderate  fondness  for  hunting  made  ]\Io- 
hammed  IV.  habitually  neglect  the  duties  of  government,  he  was 
never  indifferent  to  literary  pursuits,  and  he  showed  an  hereditary 
fondness  for  the  society  of  learned  men.     His  patronage    of    the 


254  TURKEY 

1687 

chase  and  his  patronage  of  letters  were  sometimes  strangely  blended. 
He  was  liberal  in  his  encouragement  of  historical  writers,  especially 
of  such  as  professed  to  record  the  current  history  of  his  own  reign. 
He  loved  to  see  tl^em  at  his  court ;  he  corrected  their  works  with  his 
own  pen;  but  he  expected  that  each  royal  hunting  should  be 
chronicled  by  them  with  sportsmanlike  minuteness,  and  that  the 
death  of  each  wild  beast  which  was  slain  by  the  Sultan's  hand 
should  be  portrayed  with  poetic  fervor.  A  despotic  patron  is  dan- 
gerous to  the  life  of  the  author,  as  well  as  to  the  vitality  of  his 
works.  The  Turkish  historian  Abdi  was  one  whom  Sultan  Mo- 
hammed IV.  delighted  to  honor.  The  Sultan  kept  him  always  near 
his  person,  and  charged  him  with  the  special  duty  of  writing  the 
annals  of  his  reign.  One  evening  Mohammed  asked  of  him,  "  What 
hast  thou  written  to-day?"  Abdi  incautiously  answered  that 
nothing  sufficiently  remarkable  to  write  about  had  happened  that 
day.  The  Sultan  darted  a  hunting-spear  at  the  unobservant  com- 
panion of  royalty,  wounding  him  sharply,  and  exclaimed,  "  Now 
thou  hast  something  to  write  about." 


Chapter    XVTI 

THE   WAR   OF   THE    HOLY   ALLIANCE.     1687-1699 

SULEIMAN  II.  when  raised  to  the  throne  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  in  1687  had  Hved  for  forty-five  years  in  compulsory 
seclusion  and  in  almost  daily  peril  of  death.  Yet  as 
sovereign  he  showed  more  capacity  and  courage  than  the  brother 
whom  he  succeeded,  and  perhaps  if  he  had  been  made  Sultan  at  an 
earlier  period  Turkey  might  have  escaped  that  shipwreck  of  her 
state  which  came  on  her  after  the  death  of  her  great  minister 
Ahmed  Kiuprili,  through  the  weakness  of  Sultan  Mohammed  IV. 
and  the  misconduct  of  his  favorite  Vizier  Kara  Mustapha,  the  origi- 
nator of  the  fatal  march  upon  Vienna.  Suleiman  despised  the  idle 
sports  and  debasing  sensuality  of  his  predecessors,  and  earnestly 
devoted  himself  to  the  task  of  reorganizing  the  military  power  of 
his  empire,  and  of  stemming,  if  possible,  the  progress  of  defeat  and 
disaster.  But  he  was  unable  to  control  the  excesses  of  the  mutinous 
Janissaries,  who,  throughout  the  winter  which  followed  Suleiman's 
accession,  filled  Constantinople  with  riot  and  slaughter,  and  com- 
pelled the  appointment  and  displacement  of  ministers  according  to 
their  lawless  will.  It  was  not  until  the  end  of  June.  1688,  that  the 
Sultan  was  able  to  complete  the  equipment  of  an  army,  which  then 
marched  toward  the  Hungarian  frontier. 

The  Austrians  and  their  allies  had  profited  vigorously  by  the 
disorders  of  the  Turkish  state,  and  had  continued  to  deal  blow  after 
blow  with  fatal  efi^ect.  Three  generals  of  the  highest  military 
renown,  Charles  of  Lorraine,  Louis  of  Baden,  and  Prince  Eugene, 
now  directed  the  imperialist  armies  against  the  discouraged  and 
discordant  Ottomans.  The  important  city  of  Erlau  in  Hungary 
surrendered  on  December  14,  1687,  and  came  again  into  the 
dominion  of  its  ancient  rulers,  after  having  been  for  a  century 
under  Mohammedan  sway.  Gradiska,  on  the  Bosnian  frontier,  was 
captured  by  Prince  Louis  of  Baden.  Stuhweissenberg  was  in- 
vested, and  as  the  Turks  had  abandoned  Block  and  Peterwaradin, 
the  route  to  Belgrade  lay  open  to  the  Austrian  armies.     A  Turkish 

255 


256  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1688-1689 

general  named  Yegen  Osman  was  ordered  to  protect  Belgrade,  but 
he  was  cowardly  or  treacherous,  and  as  the  imperialists  advanced, 
he  retreated  from  Belgrade  after  setting  fire  to  the  city.  The 
Austrian  troops,  following  close  upon  the  retiring  Turks,  extin- 
guished the  flames  and  laid  siege  to  the  citadel,  which  surrendered 
after  a  bombardment  of  twenty-one  days,  on  August  20,  1688. 
Stuhweissenberg  was  stormed  on  September  6,  and  Yegen 
Osman  fired  Semendra  and  abandoned  it  to  the  advancing 
Christians.  Prince  Louis  destroyed  a  Turkish  army  in  Bosnia,  and 
city  after  city  yielded  to  the  various  Austrian  generals  who  com- 
manded in  that  province  and  in  Transylvania,  and  to  the  Venetian 
leaders  in  Dalmatia.  The  campaign  of  the  next  year  in  these  re- 
gions was  almost  equally  disastrous  to  Turkey.  The  Sultan  an- 
nounced his  intention  of  leading  the  Ottoman  armies  in  person,  and 
proceeded  as  far  as  the  city  of  Sofia.  Part  of  the  Turkish  forces 
were  posted  in  advance  at  the  city  of  Nish,  and  were  attacked  there 
and  utterly  defeated  by  the  imperialists  under  Prince  Louis  of 
Baden.  Nish,  evacuated  by  the  Turks,  was  occupied  by  the  con- 
querors. On  the  tidings  of  this  defeat  reaching  the  Turkish  head- 
quarters at  Sofia,  the  Sultan,  in  alarm,  retreated  within  the 
mountain  range  of  the  Balkan  to  the  city  of  Philippopolis.  Floren- 
tin,  Fethislam,  and  Widdin  next  fell  into  the  power  of  the  im- 
perialists, and  before  the  close  of  the  year  1689  Great  Waradein 
and  Temeswar  were  all  that  the  Ottomans  retained  of  their  late 
extensive  provinces  north  of  the  Danube,  while  even  to  the  south 
of  that  river  the  best  portions  of  Bosnia  and  Servia  were  occupied 
by  the  victorious  Austrians. 

Li  the  southern  parts  of  European  Turkey  the  fortune  of  the 
w^ar  was  equally  unfavorable  to  Sultan  Suleiman.  Morosini,  one 
of  the  greatest  generals  that  the  Republic  of  St.  Mark  ever  produced, 
completed  the  concjuest  of  the  Morea,  which  he  divided  into  four 
Venetian  provinces.^  It  was  only  against  the  Poles  and  the  Rus- 
sians that  the  Turks  and  tlieir  Tartar  allies  obtained  any  advantages. 
A  large  Tartar  force  from  the  Crimea,  led  by  Azmet  Ghirai,  overran 
part  of  Poland  in  1688,  reinforced  the  Tartar  garrison  in  Kaminiets, 
and  defeated  tlic  Poles  on  the  Sireth.  The  Russian  general  Galitzin 
attempted  to  invade  the  Crimea.  He  obtained  some  advantages 
(jver  part  of  the  Tai-tar  forces,  but  when  he  advanced  toward  the 

^  It  was  at  tile  siLL;e  of  Athens  during  this  campaign  tliat  the  explosion  of  a 
Turkibli  magazine  ijartially  ilestroycd  the  Parthenon. 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  257 

1688-1689 

Isthmus  of  Perekop,  in  the  autumn  of  1688,  he  found  that  the  re- 
treating Tartars  had  set  fire  to  the  dry  grass  of  the  steppes  and 
reduced  the  country  to  a  desert,  from  which  he  was  obliged  to  retire. 
And,  in  1689,  when  the  Russians  again  advanced  to  the  isthmus, 
they  were  completely  defeated  by  the  Ottoman  troops  that  had 
taken  post  there  to  guard  the  Crimea.  But  these  gleams  of  success 
could  not  dissipate  the  terror  which  the  disasters  in  Hungary  and 
Greece  had  spread  among  the  Turkish  nation.  Seldom  had  there 
been  a  war  in  which  the  effect  that  can  be  produced  on  the  destinies 
of  nations  by  the  appearance  or  the  absence  of  individual  great  men 
was  more  signally  proved.  On  the  Christian  side,  Sobieski,  Eugene, 
Louis  of  Baden,  the  Prince  of  Lorraine,  and  ]\Iorosini  had  com- 
manded fortune,  while  among  the  Turks  no  single  man  of  mark 
had  either  headed  armies  or  directed  councils.  Yet  the  Ottoman 
nation  was  not  exhausted  of  brave  and  able  spirits,  and  at  length 
adversity  cleared  the  path  of  dignity  for  merit. 

In  the  November  of  1689  the  Sultan  convened  an  extraordi- 
nary Divan  at  Adrianople,  and  besought  his  councilors  to  advise 
him  as  to  what  hands  he  should  intrust  with  the  management  of  the 
state.  In  the  hour  of  extreme  peril  the  jealcms  spirit  of  intrigue 
and  self-advancement  was  silent;  and  all  around  Suleiman  II.  ad- 
vised him  to  send  for  Kiuprili  Zade  Mustapha,  brother  of  the  great 
Ahmed  Kiuprili,  and  to  give  the  seals  of  office  to  him  as  Grand 
Vizier  of  the  Empire. 

Kiuprili  Zade  Mustapha  at  the  time  when  he  assumed  this 
high  dignity  was  fifty-two  years  of  age.  He  had  been  trained  in 
statesmanship  during  the  Vizierates  of  his  father  and  brother,  Mo- 
hammed and  Ahmed  Kiuprili,  and  it  was  expected  and  hoped,  on 
the  death  of  Ahmed  in  1676,  that  Sultan  Mohammed  IV.  would 
place  the  seals  in  the  hands  of  Kiuprili  Zade.  Unhappily  for  the 
Ottoman  nation,  that  Sultan's  partiality  for  his  own  son-in-law 
prevailed ;  nor  was  it  until  after  thirteen  years  of  misgovernment 
and  calamity  had  nearly  destroyed  the  empire  that  the  third  Kiuprili 
succeeded  his  father  and  brother  as  director  of  the  councils  and 
leader  of  the  armies  of  Turkey. 

His  authority  was  greatly  increased  by  the  deserved  reputation 
v/liich  he  enjoyed  of  being  a  strict  o1)server  of  the  ^Mohammedan 
law,  and  an  uncompromising  enemy  to  profligacy  and  corruption. 
After  liaving  paid  homage  to  the  Sultan  on  his  appointment  he 
summoned  to  the  Divan  all  the  great  dignitaries  of  the  empire   and 


258  TURKEY 

1689 

addressed  them  on  the  state  of  the  country.  He  reminded  them  in 
severe  terms  of  their  duties  as  Moslems,  of  their  sins;  and  he  told 
them  that  they  were  now  undergoing  the  deserved  chastisement  of 
God.  He  described  to  them  the  extreme  peril  in  which  the  empire 
was  placed.  "  If  we  go  on  thus,"  said  he,  "  another  campaign  will 
see  the  enemy  encamped  beneath  the  walls  of  Constantinople."  He 
then  pointed  out  to  them  how  they  ought  to  act  as  true  believers, 
and  bade  them  take  heart  and  be  courageous  in  the  defense  of  their 
country,  however  hardly  they  might  find  themselves  pressed.  Kiu- 
prili  abolished  some  imposts  introduced  by  his  predecessor,  which 
produced  little  to  the  state,  while  they  were  peculiarly  vexatious  to 
the  subject ;  but  he  sought  to  fill  the  exhausted  treasury  by  exacting 
heavy  contributions  from  all  the  late  officials  who  had  enriched 
themselves  at  the  public  expense.  All  the  superfluous  gold  and 
silver  vessels  of  the  palace  were  sent  to  the  mint  to  be  coined  into 
money  for  the  military  chest.  And  Kiuprili  set  the  example  to  the 
other  chief  men  of  the  state  of  aiding  the  public  cause  by  similar 
contributions.  He  gave  up  the  whole  of  his  plate,  and  the  Grand 
Vizier's  table  was  served  thenceforth  with  vessels  of  copper.  Funds 
for  the  immediate  prosecution  of  the  war  were  thus  obtained ;  and 
the  belief  of  the  Turks  in  the  ability  and  in  the  holiness  of  the  new 
Vizier  brought  recruits  rapidly  to  the  army,  which  was  collected 
near  the  capital.  Kiuprili  called  out  all  the  veterans  who  had  been 
discharged  and  pensioned,  and  he  distributed  them  among  the  new 
levies.  He  placed  governors  on  whom  he  could  rely  in  the  most 
important  pashalics.  He  sought  also  fit  men  and  measures  for  the 
revival  of  the  Turkish  marine.  Mizirli  Zade  Ibrahim,  w^ho  had 
distinguished  himself  in  the  defense  of  Negropont  against  the 
Venetians,  was  raised  to  the  chief  naval  command  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  another  bold  and  skillful  officer,  Mezzomorto,  was 
commissioned  to  form  and  lead  a  flotilla  on  the  Danube. 

When  Kiuprili  was  made  Grand  Vizier  one  of  the  invading 
armies  of  the  enemy  had  advanced  as  far  as  Uskup,  in  northern 
Macedonia,  where  it  was  actively  aided  by  the  Christian  Albanians 
and  their  Patriarch.  A  chieftain  of  those  regions,  named  Karpos, 
had  accepted  a  diploma  of  investiture  from  the  Austrian  emperor, 
and,  assuming  the  old  title  of  Krai,  had  fortified  himself  in  Egri- 
Palanka.  It  was  indispensable  to  relieve  Turkey  at  once  from  the 
foes  who  thus  struck  at  the  very  heart  of  her  power  in  Europe. 
Kiuprili  held  a  council  of  war  at  Adrianople,  at  which  Selim  Ghirai, 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  259 

1690 

the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and  Tekeli,  the  Hungarian  refugee,  were 
present.  Khodja  KhaHd  Pasha,  the  Seraskier  of  the  Morea,  a  na- 
tive of  Uskup,  was  sent  with  all  the  regular  Turkish  troops  that 
could  be  collected  against  that  place.  The  Crimean  Khan,  at  the 
head  of  a  large  Tartar  force,  cooperated  with  him.  They  gained 
two  victories  over  the  combined  bodies  of  Germans,  Hungarians, 
and  Albanians  who  had  assumed  tlie  old  medieval  badge  of  the 
Cross.  The  chieftain  Karpos  was  seized  by  the  Tartars  and  ex- 
ecuted on  the  bridge  of  Uskup.  Nearly  all  the  important  posts 
which  the  invaders  and  their  insurgent  confederates  had  occupied  in 
those  districts  were  recovered  by  the  Sultan's  troops,  and  the  pres- 
sure on  this  vital  part  of  the  empire  was  almost  entirely  removed. 
Encouraged  by  these  successes,  Kiuprili  pushed  forward  with  the 
greatest  vigor  his  armaments  for  the  next  campaign.  Louis  XIV., 
who  was  at  war  with  the  German  Empire,  sent  in  the  winter  of 
1680  a  new  ambassador,  the  iMarquis  de  Chateauneuf,  to  Constanti- 
nople, to  encourage  the  Turks  to  persevere  in  hostilities  against 
Austria.  Chateauneuf  was  also  ordered  to  negotiate,  if  possible,  a 
peace  between  Turkey  and  Poland,  to  prevent  the  recognition  of 
William  of  Orange  as  King  of  England  by  the  Sublime  Porte,  and 
to  regain  for  the  Catholics  in  Palestine  the  custody  of  the  Ploly 
Sepulcher,  which  the  Great  Patriarch  had  lately  won  from  them. 
Chateauneuf  obtained  the  last  object,  and  he  found  in  the  new  Vizier 
a  zealous  ally  against  Austria.  But  the  Turks  refused  to  suspend 
hostilities  with  Poland ;  and  with  regard  to  the  Prince  of  Orange 
and  the  English  crown,  Kiuprili  answered  that  he  should  recognize 
the  king  whom  the  English  people  had  proclaimed.  He  added  that 
it  would  ill  become  the  Turks,  who  had  so  often  dethroned  their  own 
sovereigns,  to  dispute  the  rights  of  other  nations  to  change  their 
masters. 

In  August,  1690,  Kiuprili  Zade  Mustapha  took  in  person  the 
command  of  the  Ottoman  armies  that  advanced  from  Bulgaria  and 
Upper  Albania  through  Servia  against  tlie  imperialists.  After  a 
murderous  fight  of  two  days  Kiuprili  drove  the  Austrian  general 
Schenkendorf  from  his  lines  at  Dragoman,  between  the  cities  of 
Sofia  and  Nish.  The  Vizier  then  formed  the  siege  of  Nish,  w^hich 
capitulated  in  three  weeks.  Tlie  Austrian  generals  were  prevented 
from  concentrating  their  forces  for  its  relief  by  a  well-planned 
irruption  into  Transylvania  by  the  Hungarian  refugee  Tekeli  at 
the  head  of  a  Turkish  army.      Tekeli  defeated  the  imperialists  in 


260  TURKEY 

1691 

that  province,  and  proclaimed  the  Sultan  as  sovereign  lord,  and 
himself  as  Prince  of  Transylvania.  After  the  capture  of  Nish  the 
Grand  Vizier  marched  upon  Semendria,  which  was  stormed  after 
resisting  desperately  for  four  days.  Widdin  was  also  regained, 
and  Kiuprili  then  undertook  the  recovery  of  Belgrade.  On  the 
twelfth  day  of  the  siege  a  shell  from  the  Turkish  batteries  pierced 
the  roof  of  the  principal  powder  magazine  of  the  city  and  a  destruc- 
tive explosion  ensued,  which  gave  the  Turks  an  easy  conquest.  Hav- 
ing placed  a  strong  garrison  in  this  important  city,  and  completed 
the  expulsion  of  the  Austrians  from  Servia,  Kiuprili  returned  to 
Constantinople.  He  was  received  there  with  deserved  honors  after 
his  short  but  brilliant  campaign,  in  which  he  had  compelled  the 
invading  Giaours  to  recede  from  the  banks  of  the  Morava  and  the 
Nish  to  those  of  the  Danube  and  the  Save. 

On  May  lo,  1691,  Kiuprili  the  Virtuous  received  a  sec- 
ond time  the  Sacred  Standard  from  the  hands  of  his  sovereign. 
Sultan  Suleiman,  who  died  before  the  campaign  was  opened.  Sulei- 
man n.  was  succeeded  by  his  brother,  Ahmed  H.,  who  was  girt  with 
the  saber  of  Othman  on  July  13,  1691.  The  new  Sultan  con- 
firmed Kiuprili  in  his  dignity,  and  the  Vizier  proceeded  to  con- 
centrate his  forces  at  Belgrade,  and  to  throw  a  bridge  over  the 
Save.  He  then  marched  up  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube  to  encoun- 
ter the  imperialists,  who,  under  the  command  of  Louis  of  Baden, 
descended  from  Peterwaradin.  The  two  hosts  approached  each 
other  on  August  19,  near  Salankeman.  At  the  same  time  the 
Christian  and  Mussulman  flotillas  which  accompanied  their  re- 
spective armies  along  the  Danube  encountered  on  the  river.  The 
Turkish  flotilla  was  victorious ;  but  on  the  land  the  day  proved  a 
disastrous  one  for  the  house  of  Kiuprili  and  for  the  house  of  Oth- 
man. Contrary  to  the  advice  of  the  oldest  Pashas  in  the  army,  the 
Vizier  refused  to  await  behind  the  lines  the  attack  of  the  imperial- 
ists. The  veteran  warrior  Khodja  Khalid  censured  this  impetu- 
osity. Kiuprili  said  to  him,  "  I  invited  thee  to  follow  me  that  thou 
mightest  figure  as  a  man,  and  not  as  a  phantom."  Khalid,  touching 
the  thin  hairs  of  his  gray  beard,  replied,  "  I  have  but  a  few  days 
to  live.  It  matters  little  whether  I  die  to-day  or  to-morrow;  but  I 
would  fain  not  have  been  present  at  a  scene  in  which  the  empire 
can  meet  with  nought  but  calamity  and  shame."  "  Advance  the 
cannon!"  cried  Kiu])ri]i,  and  himself  formed  the  Spahis  for  the 
fight.     Kcmankesli  Pasha  began  the  battle  by  rushing  with  6000 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  261 

1691-1695 

Kurdish  and  Turkoman  irregular  cavalry  upon  the  Christian  lines. 
"  Courage,  my  heroes,"  cried  Kemankesh,  "  the  Houris  are  waiting 
for  you!"  They  galloped  forward  with  shouts  of  "Allah!"  but 
were  received  by  the  Christians  with  a  steady  fire  which  drove  them 
back  in  discomfited  and  diminished  masses.  Again  they  charged 
impetuously;  again  they  broke,  fell,  or  fled.  The  Austrians  now 
pressed  forward  to  where  the  Sacred  Standard  was  reared  in 
the  Mohammedan  ranks.  Ismael,  the  Pasha  of  Karaman,  dashed 
against  them  with  the  troops  of  Asia.  His  squadrons  were  en- 
tangled in  an  abattis  of  felled  trees,  by  which  the  Prince  of  Baden 
had  protected  his  right  wing.  The  Asiatics  wavered  and  were 
repulsed.  Kiuprili  saw  his  best  men  shot  down  round  him  by  the 
superior  musketry  of  the  imperialists.  "  What  is  to  be  done?"  he 
cried  to  the  officers  of  his  guards.  They  answered,  "  Let  us  close 
and  fight  sword  in  hand."  Kiuprili,  arrayed  in  a  black  vest,  invoked 
the  name  of  God  and  threw  himself,  with  drawn  saber,  against  the 
enemy.  His  guards  rushed  onward  with  him.  An  obstinate  and 
sanguinary  struggle  followed,  which  was  decided  against  Turkey 
by  the  bullet  that  struck  Kiuprili  while  cleaving  his  way  desperately 
through  the  Austrian  ranks.  His  guards  lost  courage  when  they 
saw  him  fall,  and  the  fatal  tidings  that  their  great  Vizier  was  slain 
soon  spread  disorder  and  panic  throughout  the  Ottoman  army.  The 
Prince  of  Baden's  triumph  was  complete,  and  the  Turkish  camp 
with  150  cannon  fell  into  the  conqueror's  power.  But  the  victory 
was  dearly  purchased,  and  the  Austrian  loss  in  men  and  officers 
was  almost  equal  to  that  of  the  Turks.  The  battle  of  Salankeman 
drove  the  Ottomans  again  from  Plungary;  Tekeli  was  defeated  by 
the  imperialists  and  expelled  from  Transylvania,  and  throughout 
the  four  years  of  the  disastrous  reign  of  Ahmed  IL  the  current  of 
defeat  was  unabated.  Besides  the  curse  of  the  victorious  sword  of 
the  foreigners,  and  the  usual  miseries  of  domestic  insurrection,  the 
fearful  visitations  of  pestilence  and  famine  came  upon  the  devoted 
empire.  A  great  earthquake  threw  down  part  of  Smyrna,  and  a 
still  more  destructive  conflagration  ravaged  Constantinople  in  Sep- 
tember, 1693.  Heartbroken  at  the  suft'erings  and  shame  of  the 
state,  and  worn  by  disease,  Ahmed  II.  expired  on  February  6, 
1695. 

Mustapha  II.,  the  son  of  the  deposed  Mohammed  IV.,  now 
came  to  the  throne,  and  showed  himself  worthy  of  having  reigned 
in  happier  limes.     On  the  third  day  after  his  accession  he  issued 


262  TURKEY 

1695-1697 

a  hattisherif,  in  which  he  threw  the  blame  of  the  recent  mis- 
fortunes upon  the  Sultans  and  announced  his  intention  of  restoring 
the  ancient  usages,  and  of  heading  his  armies  in  person. 

The  most  active  measures  were  then  taken  to  hasten  the  prep- 
arations for  the  campaign,  and  the  gallantry  of  the  young  Sultan 
was  at  first  rewarded  by  important  success.  He  advanced  in  the 
summer  of  1695  from  Belgrade  to  Temesvar,  and  recaptured  the 
important  fortresses  of  Karansebes,  Lipna,  and  Lugos.  On  Sep- 
tember 22  he  encountered  near  Lugos  the  Austrian  army  under 
General  Veterani.  Sultan  Mustapha  gained  a  complete  victory, 
and  Veterani  and  half  his  troops  were  left  dead  on  the  field. 

During  the  winter  which  followed  this  victory  Mustapha  and 
his  councilors  toiled  unremittingly  to  repair  the  finances  of  the 
empire,  and  to  increase  the  number  and  improve  the  discipline  of 
the  troops.  Heavy  taxes  were  laid  on  tobacco,  on  black  eunuchs, 
and  other  articles  of  luxury.  Many  of  the  chief  men  of  the  empire 
seconded  their  sovereign's  zeal,  and  raised  bodies  of  troops  at  their 
own  expense,  of  which  they  took  the  command.  Mustapha  had 
formed  a  corps  of  3000  infantry  from  the  royal  gardeners,  or  Bos- 
tandjis,  of  Adrianople  and  Constantinople.  He  now  dvided  these 
into  three  regiments,  which  were  equipped  in  peculiar  uniform  and 
trained  with  especial  care.  The  Sultan  opened  the  campaign  of 
1696  at  the  head  of  a  numerous  and  well-appointed  army.  He 
defeated  the  Austrians  near  Temesvar  and  raised  the  siege  of  that 
place.  Mustapha  strengthened  the  garrisons  of  the  fortresses  which 
the  Turks  still  held  in  Hungary,  and  then  returned  to  Adrianople, 
not  unjustly  proud  of  his  achievements,  though  the  great  Suleiman, 
whom  he  chose  as  his  model,  would  probably  have  pushed  his  ad- 
vantages further.  The  liopes  and  pride  of  Turkey  now  began  to 
revive,  but  in  1697  Prince  Eugene  took  the  command  of  the  im- 
perialist armies  in  Hungary,  and  the  Crescent  soon  went  down 
before  him.  Sultan  Mustapha  collected  his  army  for  this  fatal  cam- 
paign at  Sofia,  and  marched  thence  to  Belgrade,  where  he  halted 
and  held  repeated  councils  of  war.  Some  enterprises  of  minor 
importance,  the  sending  forward  of  a  detachment  to  reinforce  the 
garrison  of  Temesvar,  and  the  occupation  of  several  posts  along  the 
Danube,  were  successfully  attempted,  but  there  was  discord  among 
the  Ottoman  officers,  and  there  was  oscillation  in  the  Sultan's  will 
as  to  the  main  line  of  operations  that  ought  to  be  followed.  The 
Grand  Vizier,  Elwas  Mohammed,  was  unpopular  with  the  other 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  263 

1697 

Pashas,  who  leagued  together  to  oppose  his  projects  and  thwart  his 
tactics.  He  wished  to  keep  the  army  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Danube,  and  crossing  the  Save,  to  march  upon  Peterwaradin  and 
attempt  the  recovery  of  that  important  fortress.  The  other  officers 
proposed  to  cross  the  Danube  and  the  Theiss,  and  to  endeavor  to 
surprise  Eugene's  army,  which  was  camped  on  the  banks  of  the 
Bacska.  After  much  angry  discussion  this  last  project  was  adopted. 
The  army  crossed  the  Danube  and  the  Theiss,  but  it  was  found  that 
all  hope  of  surprising  Eugene  was  idle,  and  the  Austrians  and  Turks 
both  endeavored  to  gain  the  fort  of  Zitel,  which  is  situated  at  the 
junction  of  the  Theiss  with  the  Danube.  The  Ottomans  obtained 
some  advantage  over  a  detachment  of  Eugene's  army,  and  sacked 
Zitel.  They  then  reverted  to  the  scheme  of  besieging  Peterwaradin, 
and  marched  to  Valova,  where  they  began  to  construct  bridges  to 
enable  them  to  pass  to  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube  and  attack 
Peterwaradin,  the  old  bridges  having  been  occupied  or  destroyed 
by  the  Austrians.  Finding  that  Eugene  had  secured  Peterwaradin 
against  attack,  they  held  another  council  of  war  and  resolved  to 
march  northward  up  the  right  or  eastern  bank  of  the  Theiss  and 
attack  Szegedin.  The  activity  of  Eugene  disconcerted  this  project 
also.  He  threw  a  strong  division  into  Szegedin,  and  with  the  rest 
of  his  army  followed  the  Turks,  watching  for  a  favorable  oppor- 
tunity of  attacking  them.  This  was  soon  obtained.  The  Austrian 
hussars  captured  one  of  the  Pashas,  named  Djafer,  who,  finding 
his  life  threatened,  confessed  to  the  Austrians  that  the  Sultan  had 
given  up  his  project  of  attacking  Szegedin,  and  now  designed  to 
cross  the  Theiss  near  Zenta,  with  the  intention  of  marching  upon 
upper  Hungary  and  Transylvania.  Eugene  instantly  moved  with 
all  possible  speed  tow'ard  Zenta,  in  the  hopes  of  assailing  the  Otto- 
man army  while  in  the  act  of  passing  the  river. 

It  was  on  September  ii,  about  two  in  the  afternoon, 
that  the  Sultan  saw  his  great  enemy  approach.  The  Turks  had 
formed  a  temporary  bridge  across  the  river,  and  the  Sultan,  the 
cavalry,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  artillery  of  his  army  had  passed 
over  to  the  left  or  eastern  bank,  but  the  infantry  was  still  on  the 
western  side.  The  Sultan  and  his  officers  had  taken  the  precaution 
of  forming  a  strong  entrenchment  to  protect  their  rear  during  the 
passage  of  the  bridge,  and  seventy  guns  had  been  kept  in  position 
on  the  right  bank  for  that  purpose.  Undaunted  by  these  prepara- 
tions, Eugene  formed  his  columns,  as  they  came  up,  into  line  for 


264)  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1697 

the  attack;  and  although  at  this  critical  time  a  courier  arrived  from 
Vienna  with  peremptory  orders  to  Eugene  not  to  risk  a  battle,  he 
determined  to  disobey  his  emperor's  orders,  and  continued  his 
preparations  for  a  decisive  engagement.  If  the  Ottomans  had  antic- 
ipated him  by  a  resolute  advance  against  the  Austrian  center  before 
luigene's  troops  had  all  arrived,  and  before  his  artillery  had  been 
brought  into  position,  it  is  probable  that  they  would  have  crushed 
tiie  imperialists.  But  discord  and  disorder  were  rife  in  the  Sultan's 
camp.  The  Grand  Vizier  summoned  the  Pashas  and  Spahis,  most 
of  whom  had  passed  over  to  the  eastern  bank,  back  to  the  menaced 
side ;  but  he  did  not  move  beyond  his  entrenchments,  and  the  Sultan 
himself  did  not  recross  the  river  to  share  in  and  conduct  the  conflict. 
Only  two  hours  of  daylight  were  left  when  Eugene  had  completed 
his  dispositions  for  action.  He  formed  his  army  into  a  half-moon, 
so  as  to  assail  the  whole  semicircle  of  the  Turkish  entrenchments, 
and  he  posted  his  cannon  where  they  commanded  the  bridge.  He 
then  made  a  simultaneous  attack  on  every  part  of  the  Turkish  lines, 
and  was  everywhere  successful.  The  Turks  fought  without  con- 
cert or  confidence,  and  a  large  body  of  Janissaries  mutinied  and 
began  to  massacre  their  own  officers  in  the  very  heat  of  the  action. 
The  Christians  gave  no  quarter;  more  than  20,000  Turks  were  slain, 
including  the  Grand  Vizier  and  a  large  number  of  Pashas,  and 
more  than  10,000  were  drowned  in  endeavoring  to  pass  the  river. 
The  battle  was  lost  and  won  before  the  close  of  the  day,  and  in  the 
words  of  Eugene  in  his  dispatch  to  Vienna :  "  The  sun  seemed  to 
linger  on  the  horizon  to  gild  with  his  last  rays  the  victorious  stand- 
ards of  Austria." 

The  Sultan,  from  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Theiss,  witnessed 
the  destruction  of  his  host,  and  fled  with  the  remnants  of  his  cavalry 
in  dismay  to  Temesvar.  Thence  he  retired  to  Constantinople,  and 
never  appeared  again  at  the  head  of  an  army.  In  the  extreme 
distress  to  which  the  defeat  at  Zenta  had  once  more  reduced  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  resort  was  again  had  to  the  house  of  Kiuprili, 
and  again  that  illustrious  family  supplied  a  minister  who  could 
prop,  if  he  could  not  restore,  the  falling  state. 

Husein  Kiuprili  had,  in  the  time  of  the  Vizierate  of  Ahmed 
Kiuprili,  received  the  name  of  Amud  Shah  Zade,  which  means  "  Son 
of  tlie  Uncle."  lie  was  so  called  because  he  was  the  son  of  Hassan, 
who  was  tlie  younger  brother  of  Mohammed  Kiuprili  and  the  uncle 
of  Ahmed  Kiu^jrili.   Amud  Shah  Zade  Ifusein  Kiuprili  had  in  early 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  265 

1697 

life  been  an  idle  voluptuary,  but  the  disasters  which  befell  Turkey 
after  the  expedition  against  Vienna  roused  him  to  a  sense  of  what 
he  owed  to  the  honor  of  his  house  and  to  his  country.  He  filled 
many  important  offices  with  zeal  and  ability,  and  when  raised  to 
the  Grand  Vizierate  in  1697,  he  gave  proofs  of  his  possessing  in 
ample  degree  that  genius  for  finance  and  for  administrative  reform 
which  was  the  eminent  characteristic  of  his  family.  Every  possible 
effort  was  made  by  him  to  collect  the  means  of  opposing  further 
resistance  to  the  enemies  of  the  empire.  A  tax  was  laid  upon  coffee ; 
a  contribution  in  the  nature  of  an  income  tax  was  required  from 
all  the  principal  officers  of  the  state ;  and  Husein  Kiuprili  even  ven- 
tured to  appropriate  to  the  urgent  necessities  of  the  country  a  large 
sum  from  the  revenues  of  the  religious  foundations.  He  succeeded 
in  collecting  and  equipping  an  army  of  50,000  foot  and  48,000 
horse  for  the  defense  of  the  European  provinces.  A  Turkish  fleet 
was  sent  into  the  Black  Sea  and  another  into  the  Mediterranean. 
But  while  the  Vizier  thus  prepared  for  war  it  was  with  the  wish  for 
peace.  He  knew  too  well  the  exhaustion  of  the  empire,  and  felt 
the  impossibility  of  preventing  further  disasters  if  hostilities  were 
continued.  It  was  not  only  in  the  Danubian  provinces  that  the  war 
went  hard  with  Turkey.  The  Venetians  were  making  further 
progress  in  Dalmatia,  and  in  Greece  they  were  advancing  beyond 
the  Isthmus  of  Corinth ;  though  Xegropont  had  been  bravely  and 
successfully  defended  against  them,  and  seasonable  relief  had  been 
obtained  for  the  Ottoman  forces  that  were  employed  along  the  coasts 
and  in  the  islands  of  the  Archipelago,  through  the  gallantry  of  the 
Turkish  admiral  Mezzomorto,  who  gained  two  victories  over  the 
Venetian  fleets.  Poland  was  an  inactive  antagonist,  but  Russia  had 
become  a  truly  formidable  enemy.  Peter  the  Great  was  now  sov- 
ereign of  that  vast  empire,  and  was  teaching  the  lately  rude  and 
barbarous  Russia  to  know  her  own  gigantic  strength,  and  also  to 
use  it  like  a  giant.  He  had  already  drawn  around  him  skillful 
officers  and  engineers  from  Western  Europe ;  and  he  had  formed 
a  body  of  troops  on  the  models  of  the  imperialist  and  French 
armies.  But  ships,  harbors,  and  maritime  power  were  the  dearest 
objects  of  his  heart ;  and  one  of  the  earliest  marks  of  his  ambition 
(never  lost  sight  of  by  himself  or  any  of  his  successors)  was  to 
obtain  the  mastery  of  the  Black  Sea.  With  this  view  he  prosecuted 
the  war  against  Turkey  witli  a  vigor  and  skill  very  different  from 
the  conduct  of  Galitzin  and  other  former   Russian  commanders. 


266  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1695-1697 

Peter  resolved  first  to  conquer  the  strong  city  of  Azov,  which,  as 
has  been  mentioned,  had  been  fortified  by  the  Turks  with  pecuHar 
care,  and  was  justly  regarded  as  a  position  of  the  greatest  impor- 
tance. He  led  an  army  of  60,000  men  (including  his  new-modeled 
regiments)  against  Azov  in  1695.  He  also  formed  a  large  flotilla 
of  vessels  drawing  but  little  water,  which  cooperated  with  his 
army  in  the  siege.  His  first  attempt  was  unsuccessful,  and  he  sus- 
tained a  repulse  which  was  severe  enough  to  discourage  a  spirit  of 
ordinary  firmness.  The  Russians  were  driven  back  from  Azov  in 
1695  with  a  loss  of  30,000  men.  But  in  the  following  spring  the 
Czar  renewed  the  siege  with  fresh  forces.  His  flotilla  defeated  a 
squadron  of  light  Turkish  vessels  that  attempted  to  relieve  the  city, 
and  he  kept  in  check  the  Ottoman  Pashas,  who  advanced  from  the 
Crimea  with  troops  along  the  coast  as  far  as  the  village  of  Akkumin. 
Azov  surrendered  to  the  Czar  on  July  28,  1696,  and  he  immediately 
began  to  improve  the  fortifications  and  harbor,  and  to  fit  out  ves- 
sels of  war  on  a  scale  which  showed  for  what  important  ulterior 
projects  the  possession  of  Azov  had  been  sought  by  Russia. 

Thus  menaced  from  many  quarters,  the  Ottoman  court  listened 
willingly  to  the  English  ambassador,  Lord  Paget,  who  urged  on 
the  Turkish  statesmen  the  necessity  of  peace,  and  offered  the  media- 
tion of  England  to  obtain  it.  Similar  proposals  had  been  made  by 
the  representatives  of  Holland  and  England  at  earlier  periods  of 
the  war,  and  negotiations  had  once  been  opened  at  Vienna,  but  no 
salutary  result  had  followed.  But  now  both  Turkey  and  her  chief 
antagonist,  Austria,  were  sincerely  desirous  of  peace.  The  Emperor 
Leopold  had  indeed  seen  his  armies  obtain  triumphs  which  might 
have  filled  many  monarchs  with  ambitious  visions  of  ampler  con- 
quests, and  might  have  led  to  a  march  upon  Constantinople,  as  the 
fit  retribution  for  the  repeated  siege  of  Vienna.  But  Leopold  was 
of  a  wiser  or  a  colder  spirit.  He  was  anxious  for  sure  and  peaceful 
possession  of  the  valuable  provinces  that  had  already  been  recon- 
quered from  the  Turks  in  the  war,  and  though  Austria  had  been 
generally  victorious,  she  had  suffered  severely  in  men  and  in  treas- 
ure. Above  all,  the  prospect  that  the  succession  to  the  Spanish 
throne  would  soon  become  vacant  made  the  German  Emperor 
anxious  to  terminate  hostilities  in  Eastern  Europe  and  prepare 
for  the  great  strui^gle  in  the  West,  which  was  already  foreseen  as 
inevitable. 

Lord  I'agel  proposed  to  the  Porte  that  England  should  inter- 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  267 

1697-1698 

vene  to  effect  a  pacification  on  the  footing  of  iiti  possidetis; 
that  is  to  say,  on  the  principle  that  each  of  the  contending  parties 
should  keep  what  it  possessed  at  the  time  of  commencing  negotia- 
tions. Sultan  Mustapha  could  ill  brook  the  cession  of  such  broad 
and  fair  territories  as  a  treaty  framed  on  this  rule  would  assign 
to  his  adversaries,  and  he  endeavored  to  introduce  some  important 
modifications.  He  placed  before  Lord  Paget  a  counter-project, 
written  in  his  own  hand  (an  unprecedented  act  for  a  Turkish  Sul- 
tan), and  which  was  accompanied  by  a  letter  from  the  Grand  Vizier 
to  the  King  of  England.  The  mediation  of  England  was  requested, 
in  order  that  peace  might  be  concluded  generally  on  the  iiti 
possidetis  basis,  but  with  stipulations  that  the  Austrians  should 
abandon  Transylvania,  that  the  city  of  Peterwaradin  should  be 
razed,  that  the  Austrians  should  evacuate  all  the  fortified  places 
on  the  Turkish  side  of  the  river  Unna,  and  with  other  exceptions 
of  a  similar  nature.  Lord  Paget's  secretary  was  sent  by  him  with 
the  Grand  Vizier's  letter  to  Vienna ;  and  the  Austrian  Government 
was  informed  of  the  readiness  of  England  to  mediate  between  the 
belligerents.  In  reply  to  this,  a  communication  was  made  to  the 
Porte  that  the  Emperor  Leopold  was  willing  to  treat  for  peace,  but 
on  condition  that  each  party  was  to  keep  all  that  it  then  possessed, 
and  on  condition  also  that  Russia  was  comprised  in  the  treaty. 
Venice  and  Poland  were  added,  and  Holland  cooperated  with 
England  as  a  mediating  power.  The  Czar  Peter,  though  not  desir- 
ous of  continuing  the  war  single-handed  against  Turkey,  was 
disinclined  for  peace,  and  dissatisfied  with  the  proposed  principle 
for  negotiation.  He  passed  through  Vienna  in  1698,  and  while  in 
that  capital  he  had  an  interview  with  the  Emperor  Leopold  on 
the  subject  of  the  treaty  with  the  Ottoman.  Peter  questioned  the 
Austrian  sovereign  about  the  causes  of  his  desire  for  peace  with 
Turkey.  Leopold  replied  that  he  had  not  sought  for  peace,  but 
that  England  had,  in  the  first  instance,  offered  her  mediation,  and 
that  each  of  the  allied  Christian  sovereigns  was  to  keep  the  con- 
quests which  he  had  made.  But  the  Russian  was  anxious  not  only 
to  secure  Azov,  but  to  obtain  the  important  city  of  Kertch  in  the 
Crimea,  and  he  insisted  that  the  cession  of  this  place  should  be 
made  a  term  of  the  treaty,  and  that  in  the  event  of  Turkey  declining 
to  give  it  up,  Russia  and  Austria  should  form  a  fresh  league  against 
her.  Tic  was  answered  by  a  promise  to  endeavor  to  obtain  Kertch 
for  him,  but  he  was  t(jkl  that  it  was  mA  fit  to  renew  an  oft'ensive 


268  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1698 

alliance  on  the  eve  of  assembling  a  congress  for  pacification.  In 
another  conversation  which  Peter  had  with  the  Austrian  minister, 
Count  Kinsky,  he  asked  what  power  it  was  that  insisted  on  a  peace. 
The  Austrian  replied,  "  Our  Holy  Roman  Empire  insists  on  it ; 
Spain  insists  on  it ;  it  is  required  by  England  and  Holland,  and,  in 
a  word,  by  all  Christendom."  "Bew^are!  "  replied  the  Czar,  "  how 
you  trust  to  what  the  Dutch  and  the  English  say.  They  are  looking 
only  to  the  benefit  of  their  commerce;  they  care  nothing  about  the 
interests  of  their  allies."  The  Polish  sovereign  also  objected  to 
recognizing  the  titi  possidetis  principle.  He  complained  that  a 
treaty  on  this  footing  would  leave  the  Ottomans  in  possession  of 
Kaminiets,  which  was  the  key  to  Poland.  At  length,  after  many 
difficulties  and  delays,  the  five  belligerent  and  the  two  mediating 
powers  sent  their  plenipotentiaries  to  the  place  appointed  for  that 
congress,  which  was  the  town  of  Carlowitz,  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Danube,  a  little  below  Peterwaradin,  October  24,  1698. 

The  German  historian,  Von  Hammer,  says  truly  of  the  Peace 
of  Carlowitz,  that  it  is  one  of  those  treaties  which  ought  to  be 
considered  with  particular  care,  even  as  there  are  certain  battles 
which  demand  and  receive  the  special  attention  of  the  historical  stu- 
dent. The  Treaty  of  Carlowitz  is  memorable,  not  only  on  account 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  territorial  change  which  it  ratified,  not  only 
because  it  marks  the  period  when  men  ceased  to  dread  the  Ottoman 
Empire  as  an  aggressive  power,  but  also  because  it  was  then  that 
tlie  Porte  and  Russia  took  part  for  the  first  time  in  a  general 
European  congress,  and  because,  by  admitting  to  that  congress 
tlie  representatives  of  England  and  Holland,  neither  of  which  states 
was  a  party  to  the  war,  both  the  Sultan  and  the  Czar  thus  admitted 
the  principle  of  intervention  of  the  European  powers,  one  with 
another,  for  the  sake  of  tlie  general  good. 

The  negotiations  at  Carlowitz  were  long,  and  the  representa- 
tives of  tlie  mediating  powers  had,  more  than  once,  great  difficulty 
in  preventing  an  angry  rupture.  Besides  disputes  as  to  ceremonials 
and  titles,  the  congress  was  required  to  arrange  many  serious  claims 
and  objections,  and  each  of  the  belligerents,  except  Austria  and 
Venice,  desired  some  deviations  in  its  own  favor  from  the  general 
^(li  possidelis  principle.  The  Russian  envoy  long  and  fiercely 
insisted  on  the  cession  of  Kertch.  The  Ottomans  wished  Austria 
U)  in've  nj)  1'ransylvania,  or  to  ])ay  an  annual  sum  for  retaining  it. 
'1  hey  also  desired  Venice  to  restore  many  of  her  conquests  beyond 


WAR     OF     HOLY     ALLIANCE  269 

1698 

the  Morea,  and  that  the  Russians  should  evacuate  Azov.  The  Poles 
asked  for  the  restoration  of  Kaminiets,  and  the  imperialists,  though 
generally  loyal  to  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  congress,  intro- 
duced new  matters  of  dissension  by  demanding  that  the  custody  of 
the  Holy  Sepulcher  should  be  restored  to  the  Franciscans,  that  the 
Jesuits  should  be  confirmed  in  their  possessions  in  the  Isle  of  Chios, 
and  that  the  Porte  should  grant  certain  privileges  to  the  Trini- 
tarians, a  society  instituted  for  the  purpose  of  ransoming  Christian 
captives  from  slavery.  The  Greek  ]\Iavrocordato,  who  was  the 
principal  diplomatist  on  behalf  of  the  Sultan  at  the  congress,  replied 
to  these  claims  of  Austria  that  the  Sublime  Porte  knew  nothing 
of  Trinitarians,  of  Franciscans,  or  of  Jesuits.  It  was,  however, 
agreed  that  certain  articles  should  be  drawn  up,  by  which  the  Sultan 
promised  to  continue  his  protection  to  the  Christians  according  to 
the  ancient  capitulations  and  hattisherifs.  On  another  point  the 
Ottomans  were  characteristically  and  honorably  firm.  Austria 
required  that  Count  Tekeli,  the  Hungarian  chief  who  had  taken 
shelter  in  Turkey,  should  be  given  up  as  a  rebel  to  the  emperor. 
This  was  refused,  and  nothing  could  be  exacted  beyond  a  promise 
on  the  Sultan's  part  that  Tekeli  and  his  partisans  should  be  kept  at 
such  a  distance  from  the  frontier  as  not  to  be  able  to  foment  dis- 
turbances in  any  part  of  the  emperor's  dominions.  Austria,  on  the 
other  hand,  consented  that  the  confiscated  dowry  of  Helen  Zriny, 
Tekeli's  wife,  should  be  restored  to  her,  and  that  she  should  be 
allowed  to  join  her  husband. 

At  length,  after  many  weeks  of  arguments,  bickerings,  threats, 
and  intrigues,  the  terms  of  pacification  were  arranged.  Austria 
and  Turkey  concluded  a  treaty  for  twenty-five  years,  by  which  the 
emperor  was  acknowledged  sovereign  of  Transylvania,  all  Hungary 
north  of  the  ]\Iarosch  and  west  of  the  Theiss,  and  of  Slavonia, 
except  a  small  part  between  the  Danube  and  tlie  Save.  With  Venice 
and  Poland  treaties  witliout  limitation  of  time  v^'cre  effected.  Po- 
land recovered  Poclolia  and  Kaminiets.  X'^enicc  retained  her  con- 
quests in  Dalmatia  and  the  ]\Iorca,  but  restored  to  the  Turks  those 
which  she  had  made  to  the  north  of  the  istlnnus  of  Corinth.  Russia 
refused  to  consent  to  anything  more  than  an  armistice  for  two 
years,  which  was  afterward  enlarged  into  a  jieace  for  thirty  years, 
as  the  Czar's  attention  was.  in  the  commencement  of  the  eighteentli 
century,  principally  tlirected  to  schemes  of  aggrandizement  at  the 
expense  of  Sweden.     Uy  this  armistice  the  Russians  kept  possession 


270  TURKEY 

1698-1699 

of  Azov,  and  of  the  districts  which  they  had  conquered  to  the  north 
of  the  sea  of  that  name. 

It  was  on  January  26,  1699,  that  the  pacification  of  Carlo- 
witz  was  completed.  It  left  the  two  feebler  Christian  powers, 
Venice  and  Poland,  restored  to  temporary  importance,  the  one  by 
the  acquisition  of  the  Morea,  the  other  by  the  recovery  of  Kaminiets. 
But  it  was  in  the  altered  state  of  the  three  greater  belligerents, 
compared  with  what  they  had  been  in  1682,  that  men  recognized  the 
momentous  effects  of  the  Seventeen  Years'  War,  which  was  termi- 
nated at  Carlowitz.  Russia  had  now  stretched  her  arms  southward, 
and  grasped  the  coasts  of  the  Maeotis  and  the  Euxine.  At  the 
beginning  of  the  war  Austria  trembled  for  the  fate  of  her  capital, 
and  saw  her  very  national  existence  seriously  menaced;  at  the  end 
of  the  conflict  the  empire  of  the  house  of  Hapsburg  was  left,  not 
merely  in  security,  but  enlarged,  not  merely  enlarged,  but  perma- 
nently strengthened  and  consolidated ;  while  the  house  of  Othman 
saw  many  of  its  fairest  dominions  rent  away,  and  was  indebted  for 
the  preservation  of  the  remainder  from  conquest  by  the  invading 
Christians  to  the  intervention  of  two  other  Christian  states.  From 
that  time  forth  all  serious  dread  of  the  military  power  of  Turkey 
has  ceased  in  Europe.  "  Her  importance  has  become  diplomatic. 
Other  nations  have  from  time  to  time  sought  to  use  her  as  a  political 
machine  against  Austria  or  the  growing  power  of  Russia,  and  this 
diplomatic  importance  of  Turkey  has  grown  proportionately  greater 
as  the  sovereigns  of  Russia  became  desirous  of  possessing  the  Black 
Sea  for  the  carrying  out  of  their  plans."  Another,  and  that  a  more 
general  and  enduring  cause  why  the  affairs  of  Turkey  have  con- 
tinued to  inspire  interest  and  anxiety,  has  been  the  consideration 
of  the  formidable  increase  of  aggressive  power  which  must  be 
acquired  by  the  conquering  state  that  makes  the  Ottoman  territories 
integral  portions  of  its  own  dominions.  The  empire,  which,  while 
possessed  by  the  Turks,  is  effete  for  purposes  of  attack,  might, 
under  the  lordship  of  others,  supply  the  means  for  crushing  the 
liberties  of  the  world. 


PART  III 

DECLINE  OF  THE  OTTOMAN  EMPIRE 

1703-1792 


Chapter  XVIII 

PETER  THE   GREAT  AND   TURKEY.     1703-1730 

THE  Grand  Vizier  Kiuprili  Husein  availed  himself  of  the 
return  of  peace  to  check  the  disorders  which  had  arisen 
in  many  parts  of  the  empire,  especially  in  Egypt  and  the 
Crimea,  during  the  last  calamitous  years  of  the  war.  He  also 
endeavored  to  effect  a  general  reform  in  the  administrative  depart- 
ments of  the  army  and  navy,  in  the  finances,  in  the  puhlic  schools 
and  colleges,  in  the  laws  respecting  religious  and  charitable  founda- 
tions, and  in  the  treatment  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Porte. 
it  was  particularly  in  this  last  respect — in  his  humane  and  wise 
mitigation  of  the  burdens  of  the  Rayas — that  the  Amud  Shah  Zadc 
Husein  showed  himself  a  worthy  successor  of  his  relative  Kiuprili 
the  Virtuous.  Unhappily  for  the  empire,  the  influence  of  Kiuprili 
Husein  was  thwarted  by  that  of  other  faxorites  of  Sultan  ]\'Ius- 
tapha,  and  the  fourth  great  minister  of  tlie  house  of  Kiuprili 
retired  from  office,  worn  out  in  body  and  in  mind,  within  three 
years  after  the  Peace  of  Carlowitz.  Kiuprili  the  Wise,  as  Kiuprili 
Husein  was  justly  surnamed,  died  in  the  autumn  of  1702.  The 
Sultan  did  not  retain  the  throne  long  after  the  loss  of  his  able 
minister.  Alustapha  H.  appears  to  have  been  spirit-broken  by  tlie 
disastrous  close  of  his  military  career,  and  the  latter  part  of  his 
reign  shows  no  trace  of  the  vigor  or  of  the  conscientious  zeal  in 
the  discharge  of  duty  which  signalized  him  in  the  commencement 
of  his  sovereignty.  The  once  resolute  leader  of  his  own  armies 
sank  into  an  effeminate  sensualist  who  forgot  the  boasted  example 
of  Suleiman  the  Lawgiver  and  appeared  rather  to  follow  that  of 
Ibrahim.  The  general  discontent  of  the  nation  produced  the  usual 
result.  An  insurrection  broke  out  in  Constantinople  in  1703,  which 
raged  for  several  weeks,  until  Mustapha,  who  showed  no  spark 
of  his  former  courage,  abdicated  in  favor  of  his  brother  Ahmed  HI., 
who  became  Sultan  at  thirty  years  of  age. 

The  position    which  the  successes  of  Russia  in  the  late  war 
had  given  her  on  the  shores  of  the  Sea  of  Azov  and  the  Euxine  con- 

273 


274  TURKEY 

1700-1705 

tinued  to  fill  the  Ottoman  councils  with  anxiety.  Although  the 
armistice,  which  alone  the  Russians  would  agree  to  at  Carlowitz, 
was  not  broken,  there  were  six  months  of  earnest  and  often  angry 
negotiations  between  the  Czar  and  the  Porte  in  1700  before  the 
final  terms  of  peace  between  them  were  arranged.  Eventually  a 
treaty  was  signed  which  purported  to  assure  amity  between  Russia 
and  Turkey  for  thirty  years. 

One  of  the  first  acts  of  Sultan  Ahmed  III.  on  his  accession  to 
the  Turkish  throne  was  to  write  a  letter  to  Peter  in  which  he 
complained  of  the  menacing  preparations  in  the  Czar's  southern 
provinces  and  declared  that  he  could  place  no  reliance  on  the 
Russian  protestations  of  friendship.  But  Ahmed  was  not  of  a 
warlike  disposition,  and  the  intestine  commotions  by  which  his 
realm  was  troubled  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign  made  him  anx- 
ious to  avoid  hostilities  with  his  powerful  neighbor.  Russia  also 
was  too  much  occupied  at  this  time  by  her  contest  with  Sweden 
to  make  her  desire  a  new  war  with  Turkey,  and  another  temporary 
settlement  of  the  disputes  between  the  two  empires  was  effected  in 
1705.  Still  the  Porte  watched  every  movement  of  the  Czar  with 
jealous  care.  A  fleet  of  Turkish  galleys  was  sent  every  year  to 
cruise  in  the  Black  Sea  and  observe  the  new  fortifications  which 
the  Russians  formed  on  its  coast.  Kertch  and  Yenikale  were 
strongly  garrisoned  with  regular  Ottoman  troops,  and  a  Turkish 
castle  was  built  near  Taman  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  straits  of 
Kertch. 

The  gallant  conflict  which  Charles  XII.  maintained  with  Russia 
was  the  object  of  the  admiring  attention  of  all  Europe  during 
the  first  decade  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  by  none  was  the 
romantic  career  of  that  heroic  king  watched  more  earnestly  than 
by  the  Ottomans,  who  felt  deeply  the  value  of  the  Swedish  arms 
in  averting  from  Turkey  the  ambitious  attacks  of  the  Muscovite 
sovereign.  The  Czar  Peter  was  called  by  the  Ottoman  historians 
"  White  Mustache,"  while  they  speak  of  King  Charles  by  the 
appropriate  title  of  "  Iron  Head."  It  is  known  from  these  writers 
that  the  Turkish  governor  of  Ochakov  sent  an  envoy  to  Charles's 
camp  at  Thorn  to  negotiate  an  alliance  against  Russia.  And  when 
the  Swedish  king  was  in  the  Ukraine  he  received  assurances  from 
the  same  quarter  that  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea  should  lead  an  army 
of  Tartars  to  his  aid.  But  these  communications  were  without  the 
sanction  of  Sultan  Ahmed,  and  when  Charles,  after  his  disastrous 


PETER     THE     GREAT  275 

1705-1709 

overthrow  at  Pultava  (July  8,  1709),  took  refuge  in  Turkey 
he  was  received  with  dignified  hospitality,  but  Ahmed  showed  no 
desire  to  break  the  peace  with  Russia  for  the  purpose  of  restoring 
the  King  of  Sweden  to  power.  But  the  Porte  returned  a  noble 
refusal  to  the  demands  of  the  triumphant  Czar,  when  he  required 
that  Charles  should  not  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the  Ottoman 
dom.inions,  and  sought  by  every  possible  threat  and  promise  to 
obtain  the  extradition  of  the  Hetman  Mazeppa,  who  had  accom- 
panied Charles  into  Turkey  and  whom  the  Russian  claimed  for 
punishment  as  a  traitor  to  their  sovereign, 

Charles  XII.  at  first  took  shelter  at  Ochakov,  but  soon  removed 
to  Bender,  where  the  Porte  assembled  a  little  army  for  his  pro- 
tection. The  necessity  of  such  a  precaution  had  been  shown  by 
an  attack  which  the  Russians  made  on  a  body  of  Swedes  who 
were  collected  in  Moldavia.  The  Czar's  forces  suddenly  crossed 
the  frontier,  surprised  the  Swedes  near  Czernowitz,  and  carried 
nearly  all  of  them  away  into  Russia  as  prisoners.  This  violation 
of  the  Ottoman  territory  caused  the  greatest  indignation  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  it  was  with  extreme  difficulty  that  the  Russian 
Ambassador  Tolstoi  prevented  an  immediate  declaration  of  war. 
The  Grand  Vizier,  Tshuli  AH,  was  in  favor  of  maintaining  peace 
with  the  Czar  and  opposed  vehemently  the  demands  of  Charles, 
who  wished  the  Sultan  to  furnish  him  with  30,000  Spahis  and 
20,000  Janissaries  to  escort  him  across  Poland  toward  his  own 
dominions.  To  have  sent  such  an  army  as  this  with  Charles  would 
have  necessarily  involved  the  Porte  in  hostilities  with  both  Poland 
and  Russia,  and  Tshuli  Ali  bade  the  Divan  remember  the  suffer- 
ings of  Turkey  in  the  last  war  as  decisive  arguments  against  such 
a  measure.  On  the  other  hand  the  Sultana  Valide,  who  admired 
the  chivalrous  courage  of  Charles,  pleaded  his  cause  warmly  with 
the  Sultan  and  asked  often  of  her  son.  "  Wlicn  would  he  aid  her 
lion  against  the  bear?"  At  the  end  of  1709  the  pacific  party  in 
the  Divan  prevailed,  and  the  treaty  which  had  been  signed  between 
Russia  and  Turkey  in  the  reign  of  ]\Iustapha  II.  was  renewed, 
but  with  an  additional  article  which  stipulated  that  the  King  of 
Sweden  should  be  at  liberty  to  return  to  his  states  by  such  road 
as  he  should  judge  fitting.  The  Sultan  sent  a  letter  to  the  king 
informing  him  that  by  virtue  of  this  clause  he  could  return  to  his 
kingdom  in  full  security,  and  the  letter  was  accompanied  by  10,000 
ducats  for  the  expense  of  the  journey  and  by  presents  of  horses 


276  TURKEY 

1710 

from  the  Sultan  and  the  Vizier.  Charles  accepted  the  Sultan's 
j^ifts.  but  made  no  preparations  for  leaving  Turkey,  and  the  Sultan, 
"irritated  at  the  failure  of  the  Vizier's  plans  for  relieving  him  of  the 
burden  of  Charles's  presence  in  the  empire,  deprived  Tshuli  AH 
of  the  seals  of  office  and  made  Nuouman  Kiuprili  Grand  Vizier 
in  June,  17 lo. 

Nuouman  Kiuprili  was  the  son  of  Kiuprili  the  Virtuous,  the 
Grand  Vizier  who  fell  in  battle  at  Salankaman.  The  accession  to 
power  of  a  fifth  Grand  Vizier  of  this  illustrious  family  was  hailed 
with  joy  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  Nuou- 
man began  his  ministry  amid  the  highest  expectations  of  all  ranks 
of  his  countrymen.  These  expectations  were  not  fulfilled.  Nuou- 
man Kiuprili  showed  the  same  toleration,  the  same  wisdom,  and 
justice  which  had  marked  his  father  in  his  treatment  both  of 
Rayas  and  Moslems.  But  he  was  one  of  those  statesmen  who, 
partly  out  of  vanity,  partly  out  of  nervousness,  take  upon  them- 
selves the  personal  discharge  of  more  duties  than  they  are  equal 
to,  and  who  give  disgust  and  annoyance  to  their  colleagues  and 
subordinate  officials  by  needlessly  and  unseasonably  interfering 
with  the  petty  details  of  departmental  business.  Hence  there 
speedily  arose  confusion  and  discord  in  the  government  of  which 
he  was  the  chief,  and  the  disappointment  which  men  felt  at  the 
failure  of  their  exaggerated  hopes  and  predictions  respecting  him 
brought  on  the  last  Kiuprili  by  a  natural  reaction  an  equally  ex- 
cessive amount  of  unpopularity.  He  was  dismissed  from  the 
(irand  Vizierate  within  fourteen  months  from  the  time  when  he 
had  received  that  high  office,  and  retired  to  his  former  subordinate 
but  honorable  station  of  governor  of  the  important  island  of 
Euboca. 

Tlie  numerous  aggressions  of  the  Russians  on  the  Turkish 
territory  caused  frequent  petitions  for  protection  and  redress  to 
be  sent  to  the  Sultan  by  the  inhabitants  of  his  frontier  provinces, 
and  tlic  agents  of  Charles  XH.  at  the  Turkish  court  used  all  pos- 
sible means  to  make  these  and  similar  inducements  to  war  produce 
their  full  effect  upon  Sultan  Ahmed.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea, 
Devlet  Ghirai,  was  as  anxious  as  the  Swedish  king  for  immediate 
hostilities  between  Turkey  and  Russia.  No  part  of  the  Ottoman 
dommions  was  so  seriously  menaced  by  the  ambitious  preparations 
of  the  Czar  as  tlic  Crimean  peninsula  and  the  adjacent  districts 
wliicli  Devlct  Ghirai  ruled  as  vassal  to  the  Sublime  Porte.     The 


PETER     THE     GREAT  277 

1710 

Russians  had  built  fortified  posts  near  Kamienski  at  a  short  dis- 
tance from  Perekop;  they  had  also  erected  a  castle  at  Samandjik 
at  the  point  of  the  confluence  of  the  Samara  and  the  Dnieper. 
Another  fortress  had  been  built  by  them  at  Taighan,  and  the  care 
with  which  Azov  and  the  new  port  of  Taganrok  were  fortified  and 
the  strength  of  the  flotilla  which  the  Czar  had  formed  there  were 
also  causes  of  alarm  to  the  Khan  which  he  succeeded  in  communi- 
cating to  the  Sultan.  Poniatowski,  Charles's  chief  agent  in  the 
Turkish  court,  pointed  out  these  preparations  of  the  Czar  as  proofs 
that  he  designed  now  that  he  was  master  of  Azov  and  the  coasts 
of  the  sea,  to  assail  and  conquer  the  Crimea,  whence  the  victorious 
Russians  would  soon  attack  Constantinople.  Besides  these  causes 
pf  complaint  against  Russia  the  partisans  of  Charles  in  the  Divan 
referred  to  the  growing  ascendency  of  that  power  in  Poland,  where 
the  troops  of  the  Czar  had  now  seized  and  garrisoned  the  important 
fortress  of  Kaminiets.  Other  causes  why  Turkey  should  suspect 
Russia  were  also  mentioned,  such  as  the  Czar's  subjugation  of  the 
Cossacks  Potkal  and  Bersbasch  and  the  Russian  occupation  of 
Stanileshti,  a  fortress  o\-er  against  Jassy.  ]\Ioved  'oy  these  repre- 
sentations of  the  anti-Russian  party  the  Sultan  summoned  the 
Crimean  Khan  to  Constantinople  and  in  a  solemn  audience  which 
Ahmed  gave  him  Devlet  Ghirai  urged  with  vehemence  the  neces- 
sity of  an  immediate  rupture  with  Russia.  He  warned  the  Porte 
that  the  Czar's  agents  were  secretely  intriguing  with  the  Rayas 
of  the  empire,  and  that  if  time  were  allowed  for  the  completion 
of  their  machinations  the  Russians  would  by  tliese  means  win  all 
the  European  dominions  of  the  Porte.  His  reasonings  finally  pre- 
vailed with  Sultan  Ahmed.  The  Khan  was  dismissed  with  rich 
presents  of  honor,  and  the  !Mufti  was  consulted  as  to  tlie  lawfulness 
of  war  with  Russia  and  returned  a  fetwah  which  pronounced  the 
war  to  be  not  only  justifiable,  but  necessary.  Orders  were  issued 
to  enroll  30,000  Janissaries  and  large  numbers  of  other  troops, 
and  a  circular  was  sent  to  all  the  governors  of  the  coasts  enjoining 
them  to  prepare  and  place  at  the  disposition  of  the  Capudan  Pasha 
(whose  fleet  was  ready  for  sea)  a  certain  number  of  vessels  draw- 
ing but  little  water,  and  therefore  fit  for  operations  in  the  Sea  of 
Azov.  According  to  a  barbarous  usage  which  the  Ottomans  have 
only  lately  discontinued  the  declaration  of  war  with  Russia  (Xo- 
veinber  28,  T710)  was  marked  by  tlie  im])risi)nnient  of  the  Russian 
i\mbassador  Tolstoi  in  the  Castle  of  ibe  Se\"en  Towers. 


S78  TURKEY 

1710-1711 

It  is  probable  that  the  Russian  sovereign  would  wilHngly  have 
deferred  hostihties  with  Turkey.  It  was  not  till  near  the  close  of 
the  year  1710  that  Peter  completed  his  conquest  of  Livonia  and 
was  at  liberty  to  draw  troops  from  the  scene  of  his  operations 
against  the  Swedes  and  against  the  party  among  the  Poles  that 
was  opposed  to  him  toward  the  Ottoman  frontier.  Had  the  war 
been  delayed  for  another  year  it  is  probable  that  the  Russians 
would  have  entered  upon  the  contest  with  much  greater  advantages 
than  they  possessed  in  171 1.  But  finding  it  impossible  by  negotia- 
tions to  induce  the  Sultan  to  desist  from  his  preparations  for  an 
immediate  conflict,  the  Czar  on  February  25,  171 1,  directed  war 
against  the  Turks  to  be  solemnly  proclaimed  in  the  principal  church 
of  Moscow. 

In  order  to  increase  the  zeal  of  the  Russian  soldiery  and  prob- 
ably also  with  a  view  of  inducing  the  Christian  populations  of 
Turkey  to  join  him,  Peter  endeavored  to  give  the  war  all  the 
appearances  of  a  war  of  religion. 

The  rapid  development  of  the  vast  power  of  Greco-Christian 
and  Slavonic  Russia  and  the  approaching  conflict  between  her  and 
the  house  of  Othman  excited  in  the  highest  degree  the  Greek  and 
Slavonic  nations  that  were  subject  to  the  Turkish  yoke.  They 
looked  upon  the  Czar  as  their  coming  liberator,  and  their  enthusiasm 
was  augmented  by  a  rumor  that  an  ancient  prophecy  had  been 
discovered  in  the  tomb  of  Constantine  which  pointed  to  the  Rus- 
sians as  the  nation  destined  to  chase  the  Turks  from  Constantinople. 
Even  the  small  and  remote  tribes  of  the  Montenegrins  sent  mes- 
sengers to  Peter  offering  to  attack  their  Turkish  rulers  and  make 
a  diversion  in  his  favor.  The  Czar  thanked  them  by  a  letter  and  by 
presents,  but  the  primary  aim  of  his  negotiations  with  the  Christian 
subjects  of  the  Sultan  was  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  the  Hospo- 
dars  (jf  Wallachia  and  Aloldavia.  It  was  into  these  principalities 
that  he  designed  first  to  lead  his  army,  and  he  wished  to  make 
them  a  secure  basis  for  his  further  operations  in  invading  Turkey. 
Brancovan,  the  Hospodar  of  Wallachia,  had  for  a  long  time  estab- 
lished an  understanding  with  Russia  which  the  Porte  at  last  sus- 
pected and  directed  Prince  Cantemir,  the  Hospodar  of  Moldavia,  to 
attack  him  and  deprive  him  f)f  his  government.  But  Cantemir  him- 
self determined  to  aid  the  Russians  and  obtained  such  favor  with  the 
Czar  as  raised  the  jeal(jusy  of  Brancovan,  who  by  a  double  treachery 
Ijegan  to  intrigue  with  the  Turks  for  the  purpose  of  misleading 


PETER     THE    GREAT  279 

1711 

Peter  and  bringing  him  and  his  army  into  a  position  where  the 
Turks  could  assail  them  with  advantage. 

The  new  Grand  Vizier,  Baltadji  Mohammed  Pasha  (who  had 
originally  been  a  wood-cutter  in  the  Serail),  began  his  march  from 
the  neighborhood  of  Constantinople  toward  the  Moldavian  frontier 
in  May,  171 1,  at  the  head  of  a  large  and  admirably  equipped  army. 
The  Czar  collected  his  forces  in  the  south  of  Poland  and  in  June 
advanced  into  Moldavia.  His  troops  suffered  severely  on  their 
line  of  march,  and  great  numbers  perished  by  privations  and  dis- 
ease before  they  reached  Jassy  and  before  any  actual  hostilities 
had  commenced.  Peter  halted  at  Jassy  for  a  short  time  and  endeav- 
ored to  gain  stores  of  provisions  in  that  city,  but  the  supplies  which 
Cantemir  obtained  for  him  were  but  scanty  and  the  Wallachian 
Hospodar,  Brancovan,  was  now  acting  in  the  interest  of  the  Turks. 
In  this  emergency  the  Czar  was  advised  to  march  southward  toward 
some  extensive  magazines  of  provisions  which  the  Turks  were  said 
to  have  collected  near  the  lower  part  of  the  river  Sereth  and  which 
he  was  assured  that  he  might  seize  without  difficulty.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  misled  by  false  reports  that  the  Vizier's  army  had  not 
yet  passed  the  Danube.  The  Czar  accordingly  marched  the  main 
body  of  his  army  down  the  right  (or  western)  bank  of  the  river 
Pruth,  which  runs  nearly  southward  from  the  vicinity  of  Jassy 
to  the  Danube,  falling  into  that  river  near  Galatz  a  little  below  the 
confluence  of  the  Sereth.  But  while  the  Russians  were  at  Jassy 
the  Grand  Vizier  had  crossed  the  Danube  at  Isakdji,  below  the 
junction  of  the  Pruth,  and  had  been  joined  in  Bessarabia  by  the 
Khan  of  the  Crimea  at  the  head  of  a  large  force  of  Tartar  cavalry. 
The  Ottoman  commanders  were  informed  of  the  march  of  the  Czar 
down  the  western  bank  of  the  Pruth  and  they  forthwith  led  their 
combined  troops  to  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  that  they  might 
cross  it  and  attack  the  Russians  in  ^Moldavia.  The  Russian  General 
Sheremetiev  was  posted  with  a  detachment  from  the  Czar's  army 
near  the  part  of  the  river  wliicli  the  Turks  and  Tartars  approached. 
He  endeavored  to  prevent  them  from  passing,  but  10,000  Tartar 
horsemen  swam  the  river  and  four  bridges  w^ere  thrown  over  by 
night  wdiich  enabled  tlie  Vizier  to  place  an  overwhelming  force  on 
the  w'estern  or  ^Moldavian  side.  Slicremcticv  fell  back  and  re- 
joined the  main  Russian  army  near  Ivaltash,  The  intelligence 
which  he  brought  was  in  the  highest  degree  alarming  to  the  Czar, 
whose  force,  weakened  l)y  disease  and  famine,  was  far  inferior  to 


280  TURKEY 

1711 

that  of  tlic  Ottomans,  and  was  at  this  time  still  further  reduced  in 
consequence  of  two  large  detachments  under  Generals  Renne  and 
Jonas  having'  been  sent  into  the  interior  districts  of  Moldavia  and 
\Vallachia.  The  Czar  retreated  a  little  distance  up  the  right  bank 
of  the  ri\cr  in  the  vicinity  of  the  village  of  Kush  and  he  then  en- 
trenched himself  in  a  seemingly  strong  position  between  the  Pruth 
and  a  marsh  in  imitation  of  the  tactics  of  Sobieski  at  Zurawna. 
But  the  low  ground  on  w-hich  the  Russians  were  encamped  was 
commanded  by  hills  at  a  little  distance  which  the  superior  num- 
bers of  the  Vizier's  army  enabled  him  to  occupy.  The  Russians 
were  thus  completely  blockaded  in  their  camp ;  they  were  almost 
destitute  of  provisions  and  suffered  severely  from  thirst,  as  the 
Turks  had  planted  batteries  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Pruth  which 
swept  the  river  and  made  it  almost  certain  death  for  the  Russians 
to  approach  the  water.  The  Vizier  prudently  abstained  from  at- 
tacking them,  and  all  the  efforts  which  the  Russians  made  in  two 
days  of  severe  fighting  to  force  the  Turkish  lines  were  completely 
repulsed.  In  this  emergency  the  Czar  and  his  men  must  either  have 
])erishcd  with  famine  and  thirst  or  have  surrendered  at  discretion 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  dexterity  of  Catherine,  the  Czar's  wife, 
who  had  accompanied  Peter  in  this  expedition,  and  was  truly  the 
saving  angel  of  Russia.  Catherine  collected  her  own  jewels  and 
trinkets  and  all  the  gold  that  was  in  the  possession  of  the  chief 
Russian  officers  in  the  camp.  She  sent  these  by  the  Chancellor 
Shafirov  to  the  quarters  of  the  Turkish  Vizier,  and  together  with 
the  presents  of  Catherine  the  chancellor  carried  a  letter  written  by 
the  General  Shercmetiev,  in  tlie  name  of  the  Czar,  asking  for  peace. 
The  Kiaya  of  the  Grand  Vizier  had  great  influence  with  Mohammed 
Baltadji  and  to  him  Catherine's  envoy  addressed  himself.  The 
Kiaya  recei\-ed  the  presents  and  advised  the  Vizier  to  be  favorable 
to  the  Russian  petitioners.  ^Mohammed  Baltadji  assented,  and  nego- 
ti;iLi(ins  for  a  treaty  were  accordingly  commenced.  The  agent  of 
the  King  of  Sweden.  Count  Poniatowski,  who  was  in  the  Vizier's 
camp,  protested  against  any  terms  being  granted  to  the  Russians, 
and  the  Klian  of  the  Crimea  joined  warmly  in  Poniatowski's  re- 
monstrance. lUit  the  Grand  Vizier  paid  no  regard  to  their  opposi- 
tion, and  his  secretary.  Omar  Pffendi.  drew  up  the  celebrated  treaty 
which  liberated  the  Czar  and  his  army  from  their  extreme  peril 
on  July  J  I,   17  I  I . 

Tlie  treaty  commenced   witli   a   recital   that   by   the  grace  of 


PETER     THE    GREAT  281 

1711 

God  the  victorious  ^Mussulman  army  had  closely  hemmed  in  the 
Czar  of  jMuscovy  with  all  his  troops  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
river  Pruth,  and  that  the  Czar  had  asked  for  peace,  and  that  it 
was  at  his  request  that  the  following  articles  were  drawn  up  and 
granted : 

By  the  first  article  the  Czar  was  to  surrender  the  fortress  of 
Azov  and  its  territories  and  dependencies  in  the  same  condition 
as  they  were  in  when  the  Czar  took  possession  of  them. 

By  the  second  article  the  Czar  consented  that  his  new  city  of 
Taganrok  in  the  Sea  of  Azov,  his  fortifications  at  Kamienski,  and 
his  new  castle  on  the  river  Taman,  should  be  destroyed,  and  that 
they  should  never  be  rel^uilt.  The  cannon  and  all  the  military 
stores  of  the  Czar  at  Kamienski  were  to  be  given  to  the  Sublime 
Porte. 

The  third  article  stipulated  that  the  Czar  should  no  longer 
interfere  in  the  affairs  of  the  Poles  or  of  the  Cossacks,  who  were 
dependent  either  on  the  Poles  or  on  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  and 
all  the  Russian  forces  in  their  territories  were  to  be  withdrawn. 

The  fourth  provided  for  freedom  of  commerce,  but  directed 
that  in  future  no  Russian  ambassador  should  reside  at  Constanti- 
nople. It  is  probable  that  the  Russian  intrigues  with  the  Greeks 
and  other  Rayas  may  have  caused  this  stipulation. 

The  fifth  article  required  that  the  Russians  should  set  at  liberty 
all  the  ^loslems  whom  they  had  taken  prisoners  or  made  slaves 
of  either  before  or  during  the  war. 

I'he  sixth  declared  that  inasmuch  as  the  King  of  Sweden  had 
placed  himself  beneath  the  wings  of  the  mighty  protection  of  tlie 
Sublime  Porte,  he  should  have  a  free  and  safe  passage  to  his  own 
kingdfjm  without  any  hindrance  from  the  Muscovites,  and  it  wa^ 
recommended  that  Russia  and  Sweden  sliould  make  peace  with 
each  other,  if  they  could  come  to  an  understanding. 

The  seventh  ordained  tliat  in  future  the  Porte  should  do  no 
harm  to  the  Aluscovites  and  that  they  slit)ul(l  do  none  to  the  sub- 
jects and  dependents  of  the  Sublime  Porte. 

The  treaty  concluded  with  a  declaration  of  the  Grand  Vizier 
that  the  royal  and  infinite  goodness  nf  his  llirice  jjowerful  and 
gracious  Lord  and  Padishah  was  entreated  to  ratif\-  these  articles 
and  to  overlook  tlie  previous  e\"il  conduct  of  tlie  Czar.  It  a\erred 
that  the  Vizier  made  the  jieaee  1)_\  \irlue  of  full  ])o\\ers  \'ested  in 
him.     It  directed  that   hostages  should  1)6  given  bv  tlie  Czar  for 


282  TURKEY 

1711 

the  fulfillment  of  the  articles,  and  that  the  army  of  the  Czar  might 
then  return  forthwith  by  the  nearest  road  to  their  own  country 
without  being  molested  by  the  victorious  forces,  by  the  Tartars, 
or  by  any  other  persons  whatever.  The  Chancellor  Baron  Shafirov 
and  General  Sheremetiev  were  given  up  to  the  Ottomans  as  hos- 
tages, and  the  Czar  and  his  surviving  troops,  glad  at  this  escape 
from  destruction,  but  shamed  and  sorrow-stricken  at  their  losses 
and  humiliations,  marched  back  from  the  fatal  banks  of  the  Pruth 
to  the  Russian  territories. 

The  debt  of  Russia  to  Catherine,  who  united  all  woman's  wit 
to  all  man's  firmness  at  the  Pruth,  was  worthily  acknowledged  by 
Russia's  sovereign  in  1724  when  Peter  caused  her  to  be  solemnly 
crowned  as  empress,  and  proclaimed  to  his  subjects  and  the  world 
how  Catherine  had  aided  him  at  the  battle  of  the  river  Pruth  against 
the  Turks,  where  "  our  [the  Russian]  army  was  reduced  to 
22,000  men  and  that  of  the  Turks  consisted  of  270,000.  It  was 
in  this  desperate  exigency  that  she  especially  signalized  her  zeal 
with  courage  superior  to  her  sex,  and  to  this  all  the  army  and  the 
whole  empire  can  bear  witness."  Historians  of  all  nations  have 
vied  with  each  other  in  repeating  these  praises  of  the  heroine  of 
the  Pruth,  but  w^ith  respect  to  the  third  chief  actor  in  that  memo- 
rable scene,  the  Turkish  commander,  a  far  different  tone  has  pre- 
vailed both  among  his  contemporaries  and  among  those  who  in 
subsequent  times  have  discussed  that  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the 
Muscovite  and  the  Ottoman  nations.  The  current  charge  against 
the  Vizier  is  that  he  was  bribed  by  the  gifts  of  Catherine  and 
consented  to  the  escape  of  the  deadly  enemies  of  his  country.  It 
has  been  replied  to  this  on  behalf  of  Mohammed  Baltadji  that  all 
the  presents  which  Catherine  had  in  her  power  in  the  Russian 
camp  at  the  Pruth  to  offer  to  him  and  his  Kiaya,  even  if  all  that 
she  could  collect  from  the  officers  and  soldiers  were  added  to  her 
own  jewels  and  furs,  must  have  been  quite  insignificant  as  bribes 
for  one  in  the  station  of  Grand  Vizier.  It  may  also  be  thought 
that  the  Turkish  commander,  if  avaricious,  could  have  gratified 
his  avarice  better  by  compelling  an  unconditional  surrender  of  the 
Russian  army  and  all  that  it  possessed,  in  which  case  he  w^ould  also 
have  had  a  prospect  of  obtaining  rich  gifts  from  the  friends  of 
the  chief  captives  in  order  to  secure  his  influence  for  their  release. 
By  some  it  lias  been  tliought  that  the  Vizier  favored  tlie  Czar  out 
of  dislike  to  his  rival  the  King  of  Sweden,  who  had  treated  jMoham- 


PETER     THE    GREAT 

1711 

med  Baltadji  with  injudicious  rudeness  and  contempt.  But  so  many 
other  methods  of  punishing  the  ill-manners  of  Charles  were  open 
to  the  Vizier,  if  he  chose  to  do  so,  that  it  is  difficult  to  suppose 
such  a  motive  to  have  been  the  primary  principle  of  his  conduct 
in  signing  the  armistice  with  the  Muscovite  commanders.  It  is 
impossible  to  suppose  that  the  Vizier  feared  the  effect  of  a  desperate 
attack  by  the  enemy  whom  he  spared  or  to  adopt  the  opinion  ex- 
pressed by  one  historian  of  Russia  that  the  Russians  at  the  Pruth 
would  probably  have  defeated  the  Turkish  force  if  they  had  boldly 
attacked  it.  They  had  already  been  worsted  in  several  engage- 
ments, and  the  spirit  and  discipline  of  Mohammed  Baltadji's  army 
were  far  superior  to  those  of  the  oft-defeated  Ottoman  troops 
whom  Romanzov  afterward  broke  through  in  a  similar  situation. 
The  Czar's  confession  of  his  extreme  distress  is  decisive  evidence 
that  the  condition  of  the  Russian  army  was  forlorn  when  the 
Vizier  consented  to  treat.  It  was  probably  on  no  one  fixed  prin- 
ciple or  from  any  one  definite  motive  that  the  Turkish  commander 
acted  when  he  took  the  half-measure  of  releasing  his  prey  on  con- 
ditions which  humiliated  and  injured  without  incapacitating  for 
revenge.  ]\Iohammed  Baltadji  deserves  credit  as  a  military  man 
for  his  conduct  of  the  war,  but,  though  we  may  acquit  him  of 
corruption,  the  pacification  by  which  he  concluded  the  campaign 
must  be  censured  as  grievously  unstatesmanlike.  If  it  was  his 
desire  to  disarm  the  hostility  of  Russia  by  generous  moderation, 
he  exacted  too  much;  if  he  wished  to  crush  her  power,  he  did  too 
little.  The  advice  of  the  old  Samnite,  Herennius  Pontius,  to  his 
son  when  he  held  the  Roman  legions  in  his  power  at  Caudium, 
even  as  Alohammed  Baltadji  held  the  Russians  at  the  Pruth,  was 
sound  and  true.  "  Frank  generosity  may  in  such  cases  win  a 
friend,  or  stern  severity  may  destroy  an  enemy.  To  halt  between 
the  two  is  pernicious  imbecility."  Turkey  had  as  deep  cause  as 
Samnium  to  rue  the  middle  course  that  was  taken  by  her  general. 
Though  the  war  between  Russia  and  the  Ottoman  Porte  did  not 
actually  break  out  again  during  the  lifetime  of  Peter  it  is  well 
known  that  he  designed  its  renewal  and  made  immense  prepara- 
tion for  that  purpose  of  which  the  leaders  of  the  Russian  armies 
availed  themselves  in  the  campaign  against  the  Crimea  in  1736.^ 
The  heritage  of  hatred  and  revenge  passed  undiminished  to  Peter's 
successors,  and  Russia  taught  Turkey  in  1774  when  the  anniversary 
1  See  Manstein's  "  JMemoirs  of  Marshal  !Munnich,"  p.  117. 


284  TURKEY 

1711-1713 

of  the  Treaty  of  the  Priith  was  carefully  selected  for  the  signature 
of  the  Treaty  of  Kainardji  that  the  ignominy  which  Mohammed 
Baltadji  had  inflicted  on  the  great  Czar  was  neither  forgiven  nor 
forgotten. 

The  indignation  of  Charles  XII.  at  the  pacification  of  the 
Pruth,  his  refusal  to  leave  the  Turkish  dominions,  and  his  obstinate 
conflict  at  Bender  with  the  Spahis  and  Janissaries  sent  to  remove 
him,  are  well-known  passages  of  the  biography  of  that  adventurous 
prince.  It  was  not  only  by  the  partisans  of  the  Swedish  king  at  the 
Sultan's  court  that  the  Grand  Vizier  was  assailed  with  reproaches 
for  his  suspicious  lenity  to  the  Russians,  The  general  discontent 
of  the  Turks  was  such  that  Ahmed  deposed  Mohammed  Baltadji 
from  the  Vizierate,  and  the  two  officers  who  were  believed  to  have 
been  most  active  at  the  Pruth  in  forwarding  the  peace,  the  Kiaya 
Osman  Aga  and  the  Reis  Effendi,  were  put  to  death  at  Constanti- 
nople by  the  public  executioner.  The  delay  of  the  Russians  in 
fulfilling  the  treaty  increased  the  irritation  of  the  Porte  against 
the  Czar,  and  it  was  with  considerable  difficulty  that  the  Eng- 
lish ambassador,  Sir  Robert  Sutton,  and  the  Dutch  ambas- 
sador, Collyer,  prevented  a  new  declaration  of  war  on  the 
part  of  the  Turks.  By  their  mediation  a  treaty  was  signed  on 
April  1 6,  171 2,  which  substantially  reenacted  the  stipulations 
agreed  on  at  the  Pruth  and  explicitly  provided  that  the  Czar  should 
withdraw  his  troops  from  Poland  within  thirty  days.  But  the 
Russian  sovereign  showed  no  disposition  to  cease  from  his  armed 
interference  in  the  affairs  of  that  unhappy  country,  and,  in  the  East, 
though  some  of  the  smaller  fortifications  which  had  been  raised 
by  him  near  the  Sea  of  Azov  and  the  Black  Sea  were  demolished 
by  his  orders,  the  important  new  city  of  Taganrog  was  main- 
tained by  him,  nor  was  Azov  itself  surrendered  to  the  Turks. 
The  Sultan  again  prepared  for  war,  but  again  the  intervention  of 
the  English  and  Dutch  ministers  was  successful.  A  treaty  was 
finally  arranged  in  171 3  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  of  which 
the  first  six  and  the  eleventh  articles  corresponded  with  the  seven 
articles  dictated  by  Mohammed  Baltadji  at  the  Pruth.  Azov  was 
then  restored  to  the  Turks  and  Taganrog  demolished,  and  the  great 
strife  between  Turkey  and  Russia  now  ceased  for  an  unusually 
long  period,  lliougli  the  Czar  never  forgot  his  purposes  of  ambi- 
tion and  re\enge,  and  tlie  collection  of  magazines  and  military  stores 
at  the  River  Don  was  continued  throughout  his  reign. 


PETER     THE     GREAT  285 

1713-1715 

The  Grand  Vizierate  was  at  this  time  held  by  Sultan  Ahmed's 
favorite  son-in-law,  Damad  AH,  called  by  some  writers  AH 
Kumurgi,  the  name  by  which  he  is  immortalized  in  English  poetry.^ 
He  w^as  a  statesman  of  considerable  administrative  ability,  an  elo- 
quent speaker,  and  distinguished  for  his  literary  acquirements. 
The  character  of  wild  and  bigoted  ferocity  which  has  sometimes 
been  ascribed  to  him  is  erroneous.  He  was  an  earnest  advocate 
of  the  peace  with  Russia,  but  he  willingly  promoted  the  scheme  of 
a  war  of  retaliation  and  recovery  against  Venice,  a  design  which 
the  Porte  had  never  ceased  to  cherish  since  the  Peace  of  Carlowitz. 
At  the  very  time  of  that  treaty  the  Turks  seem  to  have  been  well 
aware  of  the  weakness  of  the  Venetian  Republic,  if  unsupported  by 
the  great  powers  of  Christendom,  and  when  they  ceded  the  Morea 
it  was  with  the  knowledge  that  they  were  powerful  enough  to 
regain  it  whenever  they  could  compel  Venice  to  fight  single-handed 
against  them.  The  feebleness  shown  by  Venice  during  the  great 
war  among  the  Christian  states  which  was  closed  by  the  Treaties 
of  Utrecht  and  Rastadt,  her  timorous  inaction  which  she  vainly 
strove  to  hide  under  the  pretext  of  dignified  neutrality,  and  the 
contemptuous  infringements  of  her  territory  by  the  belligerent  par- 
ties, all  tended  to  excite  the  Ottomans  to  attack  her.  Her  great 
Captain  Morosini,  to  wdiose  individual  genius  her  victories  in  the 
last  war  were  mainly  due,  was  now  dead,  and  it  was  known  that 
so  far  from  having  strengthened  her  hold  on  the  ]\Iorea  by  wanning 
the  affections  of  the  Greeks  and  binding  them  to  her  cause  by  a 
feeling  of  community  of  creed  and  of  interest  against  the  Turks,  she 
was  as  bitterly  hated  in  her  new  province  as  she  had  formally  been 
hated  by  her  subjects  in  Cyprus  and  Candia,  and  that  the  Moreotes 
would  rather  be  under  the  rule  of  the  Mohammedans  than  under 
that  of  the  schismatics  of  the  Latin  Church.  The  Turks  had 
made  great  military  preparations  in  171 2  and  171 3  in  consequence 
of  the  expectation  then  prevalent  of  a  renewal  of  hostilities  with 
Russia,  and  when  the  risk  of  w'ar  in  that  quarter  had  ceased  it  was 
resolved  to  employ  the  forces  of  the  empire  in  a  sudden  and  over- 
whelming attack  upon  Venice.  The  Grand  Vizier,  Damad  AH, 
led  this  enterprise  the  more  readily  because  he  was  a  firm  believer 
in  astrology,  and  the  language  of  the  stars  announced  to  him  in 
1 71 5  that  he  was  to  Ijc  tlie  conqueror  of  the  Alorea.  Some  collisions 
that  had  taken  place  between  the  Turkish  and  Venetian  galleys 

2  See  B\Ton's  "  Siege  of  Corinth." 


286  TURKEY 

1715-1716 

and  the  aid  which  Venice  had  given,  or  was  said  to  have  given,  to 
tlie  insurgents  of  Montenegro  served  as  pretexts  for  the  war.  The 
Grand  Vizier  led  an  army  of  100,000  men  supported  by  a  fleet  of 
100  sail  against  the  weak  Venetian  force  in  the  Morea  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1 71 5.  The  siege  of  Corinth  w^as  terminated  by  the  fall  of 
that  city  on  June  25 ;  Palamidi,  Napoli  di  Romania,  Modon, 
and  Koron,  were  captured  by  the  triumphant  Vizier  with  al- 
most equal  celerity.  The  operations  of  the  Turkish  fleet  were 
no  less  successful,  and  by  the  end  of  November,  1715,  Venice  had 
lost  the  wdiole  of  the  Alorea  and  had  been  driven  from  all  the  islands 
of  the  archipelago. 

The  Ottomans  designed  to  follow  up  their  success  by  attacking 
Corfu  and  then  proceeding  to  assail  the  Venetian  possessions 
along  the  coasts  of  the  Adriatic.  But  the  Emperor  Charles  VI., 
who  at  first  only  offered  his  mediation  between  the  belligerents, 
had  now  decided  on  taking  a  more  active  part,  ostensibly  for  the 
sake  of  protecting  the  Venetians,  but  it  is  probable  that  hopes  of 
aggrandizing  himself  by  further  conquests  from  the  Turks  princi- 
pally led  him  to  form  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with 
Venice  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  171 6.  The  greater  number 
of  the  Turkish  statesmen  and  generals  were  anxious  to  avoid  a 
war  with  the  Germans,  but  the  Grand  Vizier  was  eager  to  attack 
them.  War  w-as  declared  against  Austria  in  a  council  held  at 
Adrianople,  and  the  fetwah  of  the  ]\Iufti  sanctioning  the  war 
was  solemnly  read  before  the  assembled  dignitaries  of  the  sword 
and  pen. 

Damad  Ali  took  in  person  the  command  of  the  forces  that  w-ere 
to  act  against  the  Austrians.  This  army  was  assembled  at  Bel- 
grade in  July,  and  a  council  of  war  was  held  there,  in  which  (as 
at  the  opening  of  the  campaign  under  Sultan  Alustapha  in  1696) 
it  was  debated  whether  Temcswar  or  Peterwaradin  should  be  the 
point  on  which  the  troops  should  march.  Husein,  the  Aga  of 
the  Janissaries,  advised  a  movement  toward  Temeswar.  The  Khan 
of  the  Crimea  (who  as  usual  had  joined  the  army  at  the  Danube 
with  his  contingent  of  Tartar  cavalry)  proposed  that  an  incursion 
should  he  made  into  Transylvania.  Tlie  Begler  Beg  of  Rumelia 
replied  that  tlicy  lUiglit  to  rcnicml)er  the  disaster  of  the  Zenta  and 
not  risk  another  army  in  tlie  presence  of  Prince  Eugene  along 
the  difficult  line  of  march  to  Temcswar.  With  regard  to  the  scheme 
of  an  inroad  into  Transylvania  he  remarked  that  the  Tartar  cavalry. 


PETER     THE    GREAT  287 

1716 

if  once  let  loose  on  such  an  enterprise,  would  cumber  themselves 
with  plunder  and  unfit  themselves  for  warfare.  His  voice  was  for  the 
march  on  Peterwaradin,  either  to  fight  the  enemy  if  he  would  give 
them  battle,  or  to  form  the  siege  of  that  city.  The  Grand  Vizier 
heard  the  discussion  without  giving  his  own  opinion,  but  he  deter- 
mined to  march  upon  Petewaradin,  which  he  believed  to  be  protected 
only  by  1500  Austrians  under  Count  Pfalfy,  the  main  body  of  the 
army  being  encamped  at  Futaks  under  Prince  Eugene.  A  bridge 
was  accordingly  formed  across  the  river  Save  and  the  Turkish 
army  moved  along  the  south  bank  of  the  Danube  toward  Peter- 
waradin. It  was  remarked  and  remembered  by  the  Ottoman 
soldiery,  as  an  evil  omen,  that  their  commander,  though  he  might 
have  chosen  one  of  the  lucky  days  of  the  week  for  the  passage  of 
the  Save,  such  as  Saturday,  Monday,  or  Thursday,  yet  thought 
fit  to  cross  the  river  on  a  Tuesday  and  not  in  the  fortunate  hour  of 
morning,  but  in  the  afternoon. 

The  first  encounter  with  the  Austrians  took  place  near  Carlo- 
witz.  The  Turks  found  a  body  of  the  enemy's  troops  posted  there 
under  Count  Pfalfy,  amounting  to  8000  men  according  to  the 
Ottoman  historians,  to  300  according  to  the  reports  of  the  German 
generals.  Kurd  Pasha,  who  commanded  the  Turkish  vanguard, 
demanded  of  the  Grand  Vizier  and  obtained  permission  to  charge 
them,  and  thus  the  first  act  of  hostilities  by  which  the  Peace  of 
Carlo witz  between  the  houses  of  Plapsburg  and  Othman  was  for- 
mally broken  took  place  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  spot  where 
the  treaty  had  been  signed.  The  Turks  were  victorious  in  the  action 
and  took  700  prisoners,  among  whom  was  General  Count  Brenner. 
On  the  following  day  Damad  Ali  continued  his  advance  upon 
Peterwaradin,  which  is  only  two  leagues  from  Carlowitz.  But 
Prince  Eugene  had  already  taken  up  a  position  across  the  intended 
Turkish  line  of  march.  He  encamped  in  the  very  entrenchments 
which  Surmeli  Pasha  had  formed  in  the  last  war.  Damad  Ali 
halted  his  army  in  presence  of  the  Austrians  and  kept  his  men  under 
arms  for  three  hours  in  the  expectation  that  Eugene  would  sally 
from  his  lines  and  attack  him.  But  the  Austrians  moved  not,  and 
the  Vizier  hesitated  to  assail  them  in  tlieir  fortified  camp.  He  or- 
dered his  men  to  break  ground  and  form  trenches  as  if  for  a  siege, 
and  the  Turks  labored  so  zealously  during  the  night  that  before 
morning  they  had  pushed  the  approaches  within  a  hundred  feet  of 
the  Austrian  camp. 


288  TURKEY 

1716 

On  the  following  clay,  August  13,  17 16,  Eugene  drew  out 
his  forces  for  a  regular  battle  which  Damad  Ali  had  no  wish 
to  avoid.  Eugene  had  187  squadrons  of  horse  and  62  battalions 
of  infantry.  He  arranged  them  so  that  the  left  wing  was  protected 
by  a  marsh  and  his  right  by  some  rising  ground.  The  Turkish 
army  numbered  over  100,000,  of  whom  40,000  were  Janissaries  and 
30,000  Spahis,  the  rest  consisting  of  Tartars,  Wallachians,  Arna- 
outs,  and  Egyptians.  Ali  drew  up  his  cavalry  on  the  right  wing 
to  oppose  that  of  the  Austrians;  his  infantry  was  ranged  in  the 
center  and  on  the  left.  The  battle  began  at  seven  in  the  morning. 
The  German  cavalry  proved  their  superiority  to  the  Asiatic  in 
regular  charges,  and  the  victory  of  the  Christians  seemed  secure, 
when  the  Janissaries  on  the  Turkish  left  broke  the  Austrian 
infantry,  routed  the  wing  opposed  to  them,  and  pressed  hard  upon 
the  center.  Eugene  immediately  brought  up  a  reserve  of  horse 
with  which  he  charged  the  Janissaries  and  retrieved  the  fortunes 
of  the  day.  The  Grand  Vizier,  during  the  beginning  of  the  action, 
took  his  station  near  the  Sacred  Standard  of  the  Prophet  which 
was  displayed  in  front  of  his  tent.  He  remained  there  till  the 
bold  Ahmed,  commander  of  his  right  wing,  was  slain,  and  till  the 
flying  Spahis  from  that  part  of  the  battle  began  to  sweep  by  him, 
heedless  of  the  reproaches  and  saber  strokes  by  which  he  strove  to 
check  their  panic  rout.  Damad  Ali  then  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  a  body  of  officers  and  galloped  forward  into  the  thick  of  the  fight. 
A  bullet  pierced  his  forehead  and  he  fell  mortally  wounded.  His 
followers  placed  him  on  a  horse  and  removed  him  to  Carlowltz, 
where  he  soon  expired.  Two  of  the  Turkish  generals  and  the  his- 
torian Rashid  formed  a  guard  round  the  Sacred  Standard  and 
bore  it  safely  away  to  Belgrade.  As  soon  as  their  flight  and  the 
Grand  Vizier's  fall  were  known  in  the  left  wing  where  Sari  Ahmed, 
the  Begler  Beg  of  Anatolia,  commanded,  the  Janissaries  who  had 
hitherto  combated  valiantly  gave  way  and  retreated  toward  Bel- 
grade. The  battle  was  over  at  noon.  Three  thousand  Germans 
and  twice  that  number  of  Turks  had  fallen.  Eugene  took  posses- 
sion of  his  enemy's  camp,  and  140  cannon,  150  banners,  five  horse- 
tails, and  an  immense  amount  of  booty  and  military  stores  were  the 
trophies  of  tlie  prince's  victory.  But  the  joy  of  the  Austrians  was 
troubled  by  the  sight  of  the  body  of  the  unfortunate  General  Bren- 
ner, which  was  found  barbarously  mutilated. 

A   feeble  attempt  was  made  ]>y  the  Turks  to  relieve  the  im- 


PETER     THE    GREAT  289 

1716-1717 

portant  city  of  Temesvar,  the  last  bulwark  of  Islam  in  Hungary, 
the  siege  of  which  had  been  commenced  by  Prince  Eugene  twenty 
days  after  his  victory  at  Peterwaradin.  Eugene  defeated  Kurd 
Pasha,  who  led  a  division  of  the  Ottoman  army  against  him,  and 
Temesvar  capitulated  on  November  28,  171 6.  At  the  begin- 
ning of  the  war  Eugene  had  endeavored  to  rouse  the  Servians 
and  their  kindred  tribes  beyond  the  Save  to  cooperate  with  the 
Austrians,  and  had  promised  them  the  aid  of  the  emperor's  armies 
to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Turkish  oppression.  The  Servian  youth 
flocked  zealously  under  Eugene's  banners,  and  after  the  fall  of 
Temesvar  a  corps  of  1200  Servians  under  the  command  of  the 
imperial  General  Dettin  made  an  inroad  into  Wallachia  and  pene- 
trated as  far  as  Bucharest. 

The  great  object  of  the  Austrian  operations  in  the  year  1717 
was  the  capture  of  Belgrade.  Eugene  invested  that  city  in  June 
with  a  magnificent  army  of  80,000  men,  which  comprised  great 
numbers  of  the  princes  and  nobles  of  Germany  and  France,  who 
sought  distinction  by  serving  under  so  renowned  a  commander  as 
Eugene  and  in  so  brilliant  an  enterprise.  Belgrade  was  garrisoned 
by  30,000  Turks,  who  resisted  their  besiegers  bravely  and  endured 
with  patience  a  blockade  of  two  months.  In  the  beginning  of 
August  an  Ottoman  army  150,000  strong  under  a  new  Grand 
Vizier  advanced  to  attempt  the  rescue  of  Belgrade.  Eugene's 
troops  had  suffered  severely  during  the  siege,  and  if  the  Turks  had 
attacked  him  promptly  on  their  arrival  their  superiority  of  num- 
bers and  condition,  and  the  panic  caused  by  their  appearance,  would 
in  all  probability  have  assured  their  victory.  But  the  Grand 
Vizier  hesitated,  and  held  councils  of  war,  and  formed  earthworks 
and  redoubts  round  the  lines  of  the  Austrian  army,  which  was  now 
besieged  in  its  turn,  but  which  rapidly  regained  its  former  confi- 
dence in  itself  and  its  commander  on  finding  that  the  foes,  not- 
withstanding their  numbers,  delayed  the  expected  attack.  The 
greater  part  of  the  imperial  forces  was  posted  round  Belgrade 
between  the  Danube  and  the  Save,  but  there  were  strong  detach- 
ments on  the  opposite  banks  of  these  rivers  which  were  required 
to  keep  the  garrison  in  check  and  coni])lete  the  investment  of  the 
city.  The  Vizier's  army  was  ranged  round  the  rear  of  Eugene's 
main  force  in  a  large  semicircle  from  the  south  bank  of  the  Danube 
to  the  east  bank  of  the  Save.  For  fifteen  days  the  Vizier  kept  up  a 
heavy  cannonade  upon  the  Austrian  lines,  which  Eugene  replied 


290  TURKEY 

1717-1718 

to  witli  all  the  artillery  tliat  he  could  safely  withdraw  from  the  bat- 
teries against  the  city,  but  the  sufferings  of  the  Austrian  troops 
from  fatigue,  disease,  and  want  of  provisions  were  so  severe  that 
the  liberation  of  Belgrade  and  the  capture  or  destruction  of  the 
besiegers  seemed  inevitable.  The  Vizier  now  drew  his  works  nearer 
to  those  of  the  Austrian  entrenchment,  the  cannonade  grew  fiercer, 
and  the  Turks  were  evidently  making  preparations  to  storm  the 
imperialists'  lines  of  defense.  In  this  emergency  Eugene  resolved 
on  the  daring  measure  of  anticipating  the  enemy's  assault  and  of 
leading  his  enfeebled  and  scanty  army  against  the  strong  fortifica- 
tions and  immense  numbers  of  the  Vizier's  host.  He  made  the 
attack  at  two  in  the  morning  of  August  i6  with  complete 
success.  The  Turkish  outposts  were  negligent,  the  discipline  of 
their  whole  army  was  lax,  they  had  slept  in  careless  confidence,  they 
woke  to  panic  confusion,  and  when  once  the  Christian  columns 
were  within  their  works  the  greater  part  of  them  fled  without 
even  attempting  resistance.  Ten  thousand  Ottomans  were  slain 
or  trampled  to  death  in  flight.  Their  camp,  their  artillery,  and  the 
■whole  of  their  military  stores  were  captured.  Belgrade  surren- 
dered on  the  second  day  after  the  battle.  Eugene  had  the  prudence 
to  grant  favorable  terms  of  capitulation  to  its  numerous  garrison, 
and  a  campaign  which  had  seemed  likely  to  be  marked  with  his 
utter  ruin  and  the  destruction  of  the  Austrian  army  was  thus 
terminated  by  him  with  a  splendid  triumph  and  a  most  important 
conquest. 

The  Porte  now  sought  earnestly  for  peace  with  Austria,  and 
the  proffered  mediation  of  England  and  Holland  was  again  gladly 
accepted.  The  court  of  Vienna  was  at  this  time  alarmed  at  the 
prospects  of  a  new  general  war  in  the  west  of  Europe,  which  had 
been  created  by  the  restless  genius  of  Cardinal  Alberoni,  The 
victorious  career  of  Eugene  in  the  East  was  therefore  checked, 
and  the  emperor  determined  to  secure  the  conquests  which  had 
been  already  won  by  treating  with  Turkey  on  the  basis  of  the 
nti  possidetis,  though  a  negotiation  on  this  principle  was  a  flagrant 
sacrifice  of  the  interests  of  Venice,  the  ally  for  whose  sake  Austria 
had  pretended  to  embark  in  the  war. 

Tlie  negotiations  for  peace  were  opened  in  June,  171 8,  at  a 
small  town  in  Ser\ia  called  Passarowitz.  The  representatives  of 
the  mediating  states.  England  and  Holland,  were  present  as  had 
been  the  case  at  Carlowitz.     The  articles  of  peace  were  solemnly 


PETER     THE    GREAT 


291 


1718-1730 

signed  on  July  21.  Venice  gave  up  the  Morea  to  the  Porte,  and 
though  she  retained  a  few  fortresses  which  she  had  acquired 
in  Dalmatia  and  Albania,  she  was  obliged  to  make  over  to  the 
Sultan  the  unconquered  districts  of  Zarine,  Ottovo,  and  Zubzi,  in 
order  to  keep  open  the  Turkish  communications  with  Ragusa.  Her 
cession  of  the  Morea  showed  that  the  power  and  glory  of  Venice 
had  departed  from  her  with  the  last  of  her  heroes,  Morosini. 
After  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz  Venice  possessed  no  part  of  Greece 
except  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  on  the  Albanian  coast  she  had  noth- 


ing but  the  cities  and  districts  of  Butrinto,  Parga,  and  Prevesa,  a 
little  strip  of  territory  two  leagues  broad  and  twenty  in  length. 
Like  Spain,  Venice  had  been  illustrious  as  a  defender  of  Christen- 
dom against  the  Ottomans  when  the  power  of  Turkey  was  at  its 
height,  and,  like  Spain,  Venice  sank  into  corruption  and  imbecility 
even  more  rapidly  than  their  fast-declining  antagonist. 

Austria,  by  the  Treaty  of  P''assarowitz,  not  only  obtained  the 
city  of  Temesvar  and  its  territory,  and  tlius  completed  the  recov- 
ery of  Hungary  from  the  l\irkis]i  power,  but  she  then  extended  her 
dominion  over  large  portions  of  W'allachia  and  Servia — aggrandize- 
ments of  her  empire  which  she  failed  to  retain  long,  but  which  were 


292  TURKEY 

1730-1731 

long  remembered  by  ber  rulers  witb  ambitious  regret  and  desire. 
Tbe  treaty  of  1718  assigned  to  Austria  tbe  cities  of  Belgrade, 
Semendria.  Rimnik,  Krasova,  and  many  more.  It  made  the  river 
Aluta,  in  Wallachia,  the  boundary  of  the  two  empires,  thus  assign- 
ing to  Austria  the  whole  of  the  country  termed  Little  Wallachia. 
Six  other  rivers,  the  Danube,  the  Timok,  the  little  Morava,  the 
Dwina,  the  Save,  and  the  Unna,  then  fonned  the  frontier  line,  so 
that  nearly  all  Servia  and  some  valuable  territories  in  Bosnia  were 
transferred  from  the  Sultan  to  the  house  of  Hapsburg.  The  Aus- 
trians  had  not  indeed  realized  the  threat  expressed  by  some  of 
their  generals  in  the  first  year  of  the  war  when  they  boasted  that 
they  would  go  on  conquering  until  the  Austrian  Empire  touched  the 
Black  Sea  and  the  /Egean,  but  Eugene  gave  to  the  Emperor 
Charles  VI.  a  dominant  position  in  Eastern  Europe  such  as  the 
most  renowned  of  his  predecessors  had  never  acquired  and  which 
that  emperor  himself  lost  soon  after  the  death  of  the  great  com- 
mander  to  whom  its  temporary  possession  was  due. 

The  abilities  of  Sultan  Ahmed's  Grand  Vizier  Ibrahim,  who 
directed  the  government  from  17 18  to  1730,  presented  an  unusual 
degree  of  internal  peace  in  the  empire,  though  the  frontier  provinces 
were  often  the  scenes  of  disorder  and  revolt.  This  was  repeatedly 
the  case  in  Eg}'pt  and  Arabia,  and  still  more  frequently  in  the 
districts  northward  and  eastward  of  the  Euxine,  especially  among 
thiC  fierce  Nogai  tribes  of  the  Kuban.  The  state  of  the  countries 
between  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Caspian  was  rendered  still  more 
unsettled  by  the  rival  claims  of  Russia  and  the  Porte ;  for  it  was 
difficult  to  define  a  boundary  between  the  two  empires  in  pursuance 
of  the  partition  treaty  of  1723,  and  a  serious  dispute  arose  early 
in  the  reign  of  Ahmed's  successor,  in  1731,  as  to  the  right  of 
dominion  over  the  Circassians  of  the  Kabartas,  a  region  about  half 
way  between  the  Euxine  and  the  Caspian,  near  the  course  of  the 
River  Terek.  The  Russians  claimed  the  Kabartas  as  lands  of 
Russian  subjects.  They  asserted  that  the  Circassians  were  originally 
Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine,  who  migrated  thence  to  the  neighborhood 
of  a  city  of  Russia  called  Terki,  from  which  they  took  their  name 
of  Tchercassians,  or  Circassians.  Thence  (according  to  the  memo- 
rial drawn  up  by  the  Czar's  ministers)  the  Circassians  removed 
to  the  neighborhood  of  Kuban,  still,  however,  retaining  their 
Christian  creed  and  their  allegiance  to  the  Czar.  The  continuation 
of  the  story  told  that  the  tyranny  of  the  Crim  Tartars  forced  the 


PETER     THE    GREAT  293 

1730 

Circassians  to  become  Mohammedans,  and  to  migrate  farther  east- 
ward to  the  Kabartas ;  but  it  was  insisted  on  that  the  Circassians 
were  still  to  be  regarded  as  genuine  subjects  of  their  original  earthly 
sovereign,  and  that  the  land  which  they  occupied  became  the  Czar's 
territory.^  This  strange  political  ethnology  had  but  little  influence 
upon  the  Turks,  especially  as  the  Czar  had  in  a  letter,  written  nine 
years  previously,  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the  Sultan  over 
the  Circassians. 

The  course  of  the  Persian  war,  in  which  the  Turks  had  at  first 
made  successive  conquests,  wnth  little  check  from  the  Shah's  armies, 
though  often  impeded  by  the  nature  of  the  country  and  the  fierce 
spirit  of  the  native  tribes,  became  after  a  few  years  less  favorable 
to  Ottoman  ambition.  The  celebrated  Nadir  Khan  gained  his  first 
renown  by  exploits  against  the  enemies  of  Shah  Tahmasp.  A  report 
reached  Constantinople  that  the  lately  despised  Persians  were  vic- 
torious and  were  invading  the  Ottoman  Empire.  This  speedily 
caused  excitement  and  tumult.  Sultan  Ahmed  had  become  unpop- 
ular by  reason  of  the  excessive  pomp  and  costly  luxury  in  which 
he  and  his  principal  officers  indulged,  and  on  September  20,  1730, 
a  mutinous  riot  of  seventeen  Janissaries,  led  by  the  Albanian 
Patrona  Khalil,  was  encouraged  by  the  citizens  as  well  as  the 
soldiery,  till  it  swelled  into  an  insurrection  before  which  the  Sultan 
quailed  and  gave  up  the  throne.  Ahmed  voluntarily  led  his  nephew 
Mahmud  to  the  seat  of  sovereignty,  and  made  obeisance  to  him 
as  the  Padishah  of  the  empire.  Pie  then  retired  to  the  apartments 
in  the  palace  whence  his  successor  had  been  conducted,  and  died 
after  a  few  years  of  confinement. 

The  reign  of  Ahmed  III.,  which  had  lasted  for  twenty-seven 
years,  though  marked  by  the  deep  disasters  of  the  Austrian  war, 
was,  on  the  whole,  neither  inglorious  nor  unprosperous.  The 
recovery  of  Azov  and  the  Morea  and  the  conquest  of  part  of  Persia 
more  than  counterbalanced  the  territ  )ry  which  had  been  given  up 
to  the  Austrian  emperor  at  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz.  Ahmed  left 
the  finances  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  in  a  flourishing  condition,  which 
had  been  obtained  without  excessive  taxation  or  extortionate 
rapacity.  He  was  a  liberal  and  discerning  patron  of  literature  and 
art,  and  it  was  in  his  time  that  the  first  printing  press  was  set  up 
in  Constantinople.  It  was  in  this  reign  that  an  important  change 
in  tlie  government  of  tlie  Danubian  principalities  was  introduced. 
^  Sec  Von  Hammer,  "  History  oi  the  Ottoman  Empire/'  book  Ixvi.  note  i. 


294  TURKEY 

1730 

Hitherto  the  Porte  had  employed  Voievodes,  or  native  Moldavian 
and  Wallachian  nobles,  to  administer  those  provinces.  But  after  the 
war  with  Peter  the  Great  in  171 1,  in  which  Prince  Cantemir 
betrayed  the  Turkish  and  aided  the  Russian  interests,  the  Porte 
established  the  custom  of  deputing  Greeks  from  Constantinople 
as  Hospodars  or  viceroys  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia.  These  were 
generally  selected  from  among  the  wealthy  Greek  families  that 
inhabited  the  quarter  of  Constantinople  called  the  Fanar,  and  con- 
stituted a  kind  of  Raya  noblesse,  which  supplied  the  Porte  with 
functionaries  in  many  important  departments  of  the  state.  The 
Moldo-Wallachians  called  the  period  of  their  history  during  which 
they  were  under  Greek  viceroys  (and  which  lasted  until  1821) 
the  Fanariote  period. 


Chapter  XIX 

MAHMUD  I.  AND  WARS  WITH   RUSSIA,  AUSTRIA,  AND 

PERSIA.     1 730-1 763 

SULTAN  MAHMUD  was  recognized  by  the  mutineers  as 
well  as  by  the  court  officials,  but  for  some  weeks  after  his 
accession  the  empire  was  in  the  hands  of  the  insurgents. 
Their  chief,  Patrona  Khalil,  rode  with  the  new  Sultan  to  the 
Mosque  of  Eyub,  when  the  ceremony  of  girding  Mahmud  with 
the  sword  of  Othman  was  performed,  and  many  of  the  chief  officers 
were  deposed  and  successors  to  them  were  appointed  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  the  bold  rebel,  who  had  served  in  the  ranks  of  the  Janis- 
saries, and  who  appeared  before  the  Sultan  barelegged,  and  in 
his  old  uniform  of  a  common  soldier.  A  Greek  butcher,  named 
Yanaki,  had  formerly  given  credit  to  Patrona,  and  had  lent  him 
money  during  the  three  days  of  the  late  insurrection.  Patrona 
showed  his  gratitude  by  compelling  the  Divan  to  make  Yanaki 
Hospodar  of  Moldavia.  The  insolence  of  the  rebel  chiefs  became 
at  length  insupportable.  The  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  whom  they 
threatened  to  depose,  was  in  Constantinople,  and  with  his  assistance 
the  Grand  Vizier,  the  Mufti,  and  the  Aga  of  the  Janissaries  suc- 
ceeded in  freeing  the  government  from  its  ignominious  servitude. 
Patrona  was  killed  in  the  Sultan's  presence,  after  a  Divan  in  which 
he  had  required  that  war  should  be  declared  against  Russia.  His 
Greek  friend,  Yanaki,  and  7000  of  those  who  had  supported  him 
were  also  put  to  death.  The  jealousy  which  the  officers  of  the 
Janissaries  felt  toward  Patrona,  and  their  readiness  to  aid  in  his 
destruction,  facilitated  greatly  the  exertions  of  the  Sultan's  sup- 
porters in  putting  an  end  to  the  reign  of  rebellion,  after  it  had 
lasted  for  nearly  two  months. 

The  conduct  of  the  war  in  Persia  against  the  Turks  was 
resumed  in  1733  by  Nadir  Khan  (during  whose  absence  the  Otto- 
mans had  obtained  considerable  advantages),  and  that  chieftain 
gave  the  Sultan's  forces  several  defeats  and  laid  siege  to  the  city 
of  Bagdad.  But  that  important  ])ulwark  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
was  rescued  from  him  by  the  Grand  Vizier,  Topal  Osman. 

295 


296  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1730-1731 

This  is  a  name  justly  cclc1)ratc(l  by  Christian  as  well  as  Mo- 
hammedan writers,  and  it  is  gratifying  to  turn  from  the  scenes  of 
selfish  intrigue  and  of  violence  and  oppression  which  the  careers 
of  Grand  Viziers  generally  exiiibit,  and  to  pause  on  the  character 
of  a  Turk  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who  was  not  only  skillful,  sage, 
and  valiant,  but  who  gave  proofs  of  a  noble  spirit  of  generosity  and 
gratitude   such  as  does  honor  to  human  nature. 

Osman  was  born  in  the  Morea ;  he  was  educated  in  the  Serail, 
at  Constantinople,  where  native  Turks  were  now  frequently  brought 
up.  since  the  practice  of  levying  Christian  children  for  the  Sultan's 
service  had  been  discontinued.  At  the  age  of  twenty-six  he  had 
attained  the  rank  of  Begler  Beg,  and  was  sent  on  a  mission  from 
the  Porte  to  the  governor  of  Egypt.  On  the  voyage  his  ship  en- 
countered a  Spanish  corsair  and  was  captured  after  a  brave  defense, 
in  the  course  of  which  Osman  received  a  wound  which  lamed  him 
for  life,  whence  he  obtained  his  name  of  Topal  or  lame  Osman. 
The  Spanish  pirates  carried  their  prize  into  Malta,  where  a  French- 
man of  Marseilles,  named  Vincent  Arnaud,  was  then  harbor-master. 
Arnaud  came  on  board  the  prize,  and  was  scrutinizing  the  prisoners, 
when  Osman  addressed  him,  and  said :  "  Can  you  do  a  generous 
and  gallant  action  ?  Ransom  me,  and  take  my  word,  you  shall  lose 
nothing  by  it."  Struck  by  Osman's  appearance  and  manijer,  the 
Frenchman  turned  to  the  captain  of  the  vessel  and  asked  the  amount 
of  the  ransom.  The  answer  was  a  thousand  sequins,  a  sum  nearly 
equal  to  $2500.  Arnaud  then  said  to  the  Turk,  "  I  know  nothing  of 
you,  and  would  you  have  me  risk  a  thousand  sequins  on  your  bare 
word  ?  "  Osman  replied  that  Arnaud  could  not  be  blamed  for 
not  trusting  to  the  word  of  a  stranger ;  "  but,"  he  added,  "  I  have 
nothing  at  present  but  my  word  of  honor  to  give  to  you,  nor  do  I 
pretend  to  assign  any  reason  why  you  should  trust  to  it.  Flowever, 
I  tell  you  if  you  do  trust  to  it,  you  shall  have  no  occasion  to  repent." 
The  Oriental  proverb  says  well  that  "  there  are  paths  which  lead 
straight  from  heart  to  heart."  Arnaud  was  so  wrought  upon  by 
Osman's  frank  and  manly  manner  that  he  prevailed  on  the  Span- 
iards to  set  him  at  Iil)erty  for  600  sequins,  which  sum  the  generous 
Frenchman  immediately  paid.  He  provided  Osman  with  a  home 
and  medical  assistance  until  his  wounds  were  healed,  and  then  gave 
him  the  means  of  ])rocecding  on  his  voyage  to  Egypt.  As  soon  as 
Osman  reached  Cairo  he  sent  back  1000  sequins  as  payment  to 
Arnaud,  with  a  present  of  500  crowns,  and  of  rich  furs,  which  are 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  297 

1731-1732 

considered  the  most  honorable  of  all  gifts  in  the  East.  A  few 
years  afterward  Osman  signalized  himself  greatly  in  the  Tur- 
kish reconquest  of  the  Morea,  and  in  1722  he  was  appointed 
Seraskier,  and  commanded  all  the  Turkish  troops  in  that  country. 
He  immediately  invited  Arnaud's  son  to  visit  him  in  the  Morea, 
and  conferred  mercantile  privileges  on  the  young  man  and  placed 
opportunities  for  lucrative  commerce  within  his  reach,  which  en- 
abled him  to  accumulate  large  wealth,  with  which  he  returned  to 
his  father.  In  1728  Osman  was  governor  of  Rumelia,  and  he 
then  invited  his  French  benefactor  and  his  son  to  visit  him  at  Nish, 
his  seat  of  government,  where  he  treated  them  with  distinction  and 
honor  such  as  no  Ottoman  Turk  had  ever  before  been  seen  to 
accord  to  a  Christian.  On  taking  leave  of  him  at  Nish,  Arnaud  said, 
as  a  compliment,  that  he  trusted  to  live  to  visit  Osman  as  Grand 
Vizier  at  Constantinople.  When  Topal  Osman  attained  that  rank 
in  1 73 1  he  again  invited  Arnaud  and  his  son  to  become  his  guests, 
and,  receiving  them  in  his  palace,  in  the  presence  of  the  highest 
dignitaries  of  the  state,  Osman  pointed  out  the  elder  Arnaud  and 
said :  "  Behold  this  Frenchman ;  I  was  once  a  slave  loaded  with 
chains,  streaming  with  blood,  and  covered  with  wounds;  this  is 
the  man  who  redeemed  and  saved  me;  this  is  my  master  and 
benefactor;  to  him  I  am  indebted  for  life,  liberty,  fortune,  and 
everything  I  enjoy.  Without  knowing  me,  he  paid  for  me  a  large 
ransom;  sent  me  away  upon  my  bare  word,  and  gave  me  a  ship 
to  carry  me  where  I  pleased.  Where  is  there  even  a  IMussulman 
capable  of  such  generosity?"  Fie  then  took  both  the  Arnauds  by 
the  hand  and  questioned  them  earnestly  and  kindly  concerning 
their  fortune  and  prospects,  ending  with  an  Asiatic  sentence,''  God's 
goodness  is  without  bounds."  lie  afterward  gave  them  many  re- 
ceptions in  private,  when  they  met  without  ceremony  as  friends, 
and  he  sent  them  back  to  their  country  loaded  with  the  richest 
presents. 

Topal  Osman  was  superseded  in  tlie  Grand  Vizierate  in  1732. 
His  friends  and  dependents  lamented  bitterly  over  his  downfall, 
but  Osman  bore  it  with  a  nobler  feeling  than  the  ordinary  stoicism 
of  a  Turk  under  misfortune.  According  to  his  English  biographer, 
he  summoned  his  friends  and  family  round  him  and  addressed 
them  thus:  "What  is  the  reason  of  your  aflliction?  Have  I  not 
always  said  that  the  office  of  Grand  Vizier  is  of  all  the  most  likely 
to  be  short?    All  my  concern  was  I  slionld  get  out  of  it  with  honor; 


298  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1733-1736 

and,  thanks  to  God,  I  have  done  nothing  with  which  I  reproach 
myself.  j\Iy  master,  the  SuUan,  approves  of  my  services,  and  I 
resign  with  perfect  satisfaction."  He  then  gave  orders  for  ren- 
dering thanks  to  Heaven,  as  if  it  had  been  one  of  the  most  happy 
events  of  his  hfe. 

Before  Topal  Osman  had  been  long  in  retirement  the  alarming 
progress  of  the  Persian  armies  made  the  Porte  again  require  his 
services,  and  he  was  sent  into  Asia  as  generalissimo  of  the  Turkish 
armies  in  that  continent,  and  was  invested  with  almost  unlimited 
powers.  He  marched  to  encounter  the  dreaded  Nadir,  and  on 
July  19,  1733,  gave  him  a  complete  overthrow  in  a  pitched  battle 
near  the  banks  of  the  Tigris,  about  twelve  leagues  from  Bagdad. 

The  victory  thus  gained  by  Topal  Osman  on  the  Tigris  rescued 
Bagdad;  and  he  again  defeated  the  Persians,  near  Leitan,  in  the 
same  year.  But  in  a  third  battle  with  Nadir,  near  Kerkoud,  the 
Turks  were  routed,  and  Topal  Osman  himself  died  the  death  of 
a  gallant  soldier,  fighting  sword  in  hand  to  the  last,  rather  than 
disgrace  himself  by  flight.  His  body  was  borne  off  the  field  by 
some  of  his  attendants,  and  was  afterward  brought  for  burial  to 
Constantinople. 

Nadir  gained  repeated  victories  over  the  Ottoman  generals 
who  succeeded  Topal  Osman,  and  in  1736  the  Porte  gladly  made  a 
treaty  of  peace  with  its  formidable  enemy,  which  fixed  the  same 
boundary  between  Turkey  and  Persia  that  had  been  determined  by 
the  old  treaty  made  with  ]\Iurad  IV.  In  the  preceding  year  the 
Russians  had  made  a  compact  of  peace  and  amity  with  Nadir 
by  which  they  abandoned  those  Persian  provinces  which  they  had 
appropriated  by  the  partition  treaty  made  between  Peter  the  Great 
and  Ahmed  III.  The  court  of  St.  Petersburg  thought  it  more 
profitable  to  begin  a  war  of  conquest  against  Turkey,  now  weak- 
ened by  the  sword  of  Nadir  Shah,  than  to  strive  for  the  retention 
of  districts  round  the  Caspian  Sea,  which  were  then  far  distant 
from  any  strong  parts  of  the  Russian  Empire. 

It  was  with  reluctance  and  alarm  that  the  Porte  found  itself 
again  involved  in  hostilities  with  the  powers  of  Christendom.  The 
war  with  Persia  had  been  zealously  undertaken,  and  though  un- 
successful, was  not  unpopular.  In  combating  the  Persians  the 
Turks  fought  against  heretics  whom  they  hated  a  hundredfold 
worse  than  tlie  unbelievers,  and  they  hoped  also  to  achieve  new 
conquests    or  t(j  recover  ancient  dominions.     But  the  prospect  of 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  299 

1733-1734 

collision  with  either  of  the  great  neighboring  Christian  empires 
caused  far  different  feelings.  Neither  Ottoman  pride  nor  Aloham- 
medan  fanaticism  could  now  expect  to  see  the  Crescent  reassert 
in  the  battlefield  that  superiority  over  the  Cross  which  it  had  held 
in  the  days  of  Mohammed  the  Conqueror,  and  in  those  of  Suleiman 
the  Lord  of  his  Age.  The  last  dreams  of  such  a  reaction  had 
vanished  when  Damad  Ali,  the  conqueror  of  the  Morea,  fell  before 
Eugene  at  Peterwaradin.-  The  Turkish  ministers  who  succeeded 
that  "  dauntless  Vizier  "  ^  knew  the  superiority  which  the  military 
system  of  Austria  and  Russia  had  acquired  over  the  Turkish.  They 
watched  carefully  the  political  movements  of  Christendom,  and 
made  it  their  chief  study  to  preserve  peace.  It  was  in  vain  that  the 
French  ambassadors  at  Constantinople  strove  to  excite  the  Porte  to 
war  with  Austria,  and  that  the  Swedish  envoys  urged  it  to  recom- 
mence the  struggle  against  Russia.  The  Turkish  statesmen  sought 
and  followed  the  pacific  advice  of  the  representatives  of  England 
and  Holland,  the  two  maritime  powers  whose  intervention  had 
obtained  the  Treaties  of  Carlowitz  and  Passarowitz,  and  who  had 
no  selfish  interest  in  plunging  Turkey  into  the  perils  of  new  wars. 
In  general  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  then  regarded  by  the  Christian 
powers  much  as  it  has  been  in  our  own  times.  The  decay  of  its 
military  force  was  considered  to  be  irretrievable ;  and  the  speedy 
expulsion  of  the  Turks  from  Europe  and  the  dismemberment  of 
their  dominions  were  confidently  and  covetously  expected.  Some 
sagacious  observers  judged  differently.  The  celebrated  French 
military  writer,  the  Chevalier  Folard.  attributed  the  defeats  of  the 
Turkish  armies  in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  almost 
entirely  to  their  neglect  in  not  availing  themselves  of  the  improve- 
ments that  had  been  made  in  the  weapons  of  war.  In  his  o])inion 
it  was  the  bayonet  that  had  given  the  Christians  their  victories 
over  the  Moslems.  Pie  thought  the  Turks  inferior  in  courage  to 
no  nation  living,  and  far  superior  in  all  soldierly  qualities  to  the 
Russians,  whom  Peter  the  Great  had  then  recently  made  formidable 
to  Europe.  Folard  believed  that  there  needed  l)ut  the  appearance 
of  some  military  reformer,  some  enlightened  Vizier  among  the  Otto- 
mans, to  restore  them  U)  their  old  renown,  and  change  the  face  of 
the  affairs  of  the  whole  world.  Montescjuieu  also,  the  highest  politi- 
cal genius  of  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  ])ointed  out  to 
his  contemporaries  that  tlieir  anlicip.'itii.ns  of  witnessing  tlie  fall  of 
J  "  Thus  uttered  Coumotirgi,  the  dauntless  Vizier."— Byron. 


800  T  U  11  K  E  Y 

1734-1735 

the  Ottoman  Empire  were  premature.  He  foresaw  with  marvelous 
sagacity  that  Turkey,  if  her  independence  were  ever  seriously  men- 
aced by  either  of  the  great  military  monarchies  in  her  neighborhood, 
would  find  protection  from  the  maritime  powers  of  Western  Eu- 
rope, who  know  their  own  interests  too  well  to  permit  Constanti- 
nople to  become  the  prize  of  either  Austrian  or  Russian  invaders. 

This  caution  was  in  1734,  as  in  after  years,  unknown  or  un- 
heeded at  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg,  Russia  had  at  this  time 
ready  for  action  a  veteran  army  which  had  gained  reputation  in 
the  war  in  Poland,  and  she  possessed  a  general  of  no  ordinary 
military  genius  in  Count  IMiinnich,  who  had  brought  her  troops 
into  a  high  state  of  efficiency  and  was  eager  for  opportunities  of 
further  distinction.  The  Russian  army  was  excellently  officered, 
chiefly  by  foreigners  from  Western  Europe,  and  the  artillery  (that 
important  arm  of  modern  warfare  to  which  the  Russians  have 
owed  so  many  advantages)  was  unusually  numerous  and  well- 
appointed.  The  Empress  Anne  and  her  advisers  thought  that  the 
time  had  come  for  avenging  upon  the  Turks  the  disgrace  which 
had  been  sustained  in  171 1  on  the  banks  of  the  Pruth,  and  Austria, 
which  was  then  governed  by  the  infirm  Charles  VI.,  was  persuaded 
to  join  Russia  in  her  schemes  of  aggression.  There  had  been  nu- 
merous disputes  between  the  empress  and  the  Porte  arising  out 
of  their  unsettled  claims  to  Daghestan,  and  the  Kabartas,  and 
other  districts  between  the  Black  and  the  Caspian  Seas.  The 
march  of  Tartar  troops  from  the  Crimea  through  the  Caucasian 
territories  for  the  purpose  of  cooperating  with  the  Ottoman  armies 
in  the  north  of  Persia  had  been  forcibly  resisted  by  the  Russians, 
and  collisions  had  taken  place  which  gave  an  ample  supply  of 
pretexts  for  war  to  the  empress  and  her  licentious  favorite,  Biren, 
by  whom  the  councils  of  St.  Petersburg  were  chiefly  swayed. 
Turkey  had  also  caused  grave  offense  to  Russia  by  earnestly  re- 
monstrating in  1733  against  the  iniquitous  attacks  of  the  Russians 
up{m  the  independence  of  Poland.  The  Reis  Effendi  made  an 
explicit  protest  against  the  occupation  of  that  country  and  its 
capital  by  the  empress's  troops.  He  was  met  by  tlie  answer  that 
the  Russians  had  only  entered  Poland  for  the  sake  of  enabling  the 
Poles  to  proceed  to  the  election  of  their  new  king  in  freedom,  which 
bVance  was  endeavoring  to  disturb  by  her  intrigues  in  favor  of 
Stanislaus  Lesczinski.  The  Turk  rejoined  that  the  Sublime  Pi)rte 
did  not  concern  itself  as  to  whom  the  Poles  chose  for  their  king. 


M  A  H  IVI  U  D     I  301 

1735-1736 

but  that  it  was  resolved  to  uphold  the  national  independence  of 
Poland.  The  envoy  of  Russia  then  made  a  long  catalogue  of  com- 
plaints against  the  Porte  for  permitting  the  Tartars  to  attack  the 
Cossacks,  for  marching  troops  through  the  Caucasian  territory, 
and  for  not  delivering  up  a  refugee  from  Russia  named  Kalumin- 
ski.  These  grievances  were  said  to  be  the  reason  why  Russia  in- 
creased her  forces  in  the  south.  These  and  similar  recriminations 
were  continued  during  the  two  next  years,  but  Biren  and  the  em- 
press were  resolved  on  war,  which  the  ministers  of  the  maritime 
powers  vainly  labored  to  prevent. 

So  long  as  the  hostile  intentions  of  Russia  were  only  manifested 
by  conflicts  with  the  Tartars  along  the  ill-defined  frontiers  of 
Turkey  near  the  Crimea  and  the  Caucasus  the  Porte  continued  to 
negotiate,  but  in  May,  1736,  intelligence  reached  Constantinople 
that  the  empress's  army  under  Marshal  Miinnich  had  captured  two 
Turkish  fortresses  near  Azov  and  that  Russian  troops  were  actually 
besieging  that  important  city.  On  May  28,  1736,  war  was  de- 
clared by  a  solemn  fetwah  against  Russia,  and  on  that  very  day 
Miinnich  stormed  the  lines  of  Perekop. 

We  possess  in  the  memoirs  of  General  Manstein,  who  served 
under  ^Marshal  Miinnich  and  who  was  also  frequently  employed 
in  the  diplomatic  service  of  the  Russian  cabinet,  an  unquestionable 
source  of  ample  information  respecting  these  Crimean  campaigns 
and  also  respecting  the  inveterate  policy  of  Russia  toward  Turkey. 
General  Manstein  expressly  states  that  Peter  I.,  unable  to  stomach 
the  Treaty  of  the  Pruth,  had  long  ago  planned  the  war  on  the 
coasts  of  the  Black  Sea  which  the  Empress  Anne  undertook.  He 
had  formed  vast  magazines  on  the  River  Don  and  had  collected 
materials  for  a  flotilla  which  was  to  waft  his  army  down  that  river 
and  the  Dnieper.  .Ml  was  ready  for  the  commencement  of  a  cam- 
paign when  death  cut  sliort  his  projects  (May  ]6,  1727).  On  the 
accession  of  the  Empress  Anne,  in  1730,  the  design  of  a  Turkish 
war  was  revived ;  and  General  Keith  was  sent  by  the  court  of  St. 
Petersburg  to  Southern  Russia  to  inspect  the  state  of  the  maga- 
zines which  Peter  the  (jrcat  had  formed,  a^id  to  reorganize,  so  far 
as  was  necessary,  his  armaments  for  an  attack  on  the  Ottoman  d(i- 
minions.  The  troubles  in  Poland  obliged  the  empress  to  defer  lios- 
tilities  against  tlie  J'orte;  but  when,  in  1735,  the  Russians  had  been 
complctclv  successful  against  the  independent  party  among  the 
Tholes.  Miiimich  and  his  l)cst  troops  were  moved  into  the  Ukraine: 


302  T  IT  R  K  E  Y 

1736 

and  it  was  resolved  to  commence  the  campaign  against  Turkey  by 
attacking  Azov,  and  to  make  also  the  greatest  possible  efforts 
against  the  Tartars  of  the  Crimea,  in  order  to  conquer  their  whole 
country  and  establish  the  Russian  power  over  the  Black  Sea, 

In  the  month  of  March  Miinnich  advanced  with  six  regiments 
of  infantry,  three  of  dragoons,  and  3000  Cossacks  of  the  Don  to 
St.  Anne,  a  fortress  which  the  Russians  had  erected  about  eight 
miles  from  Azov.  The  Turkish  governor  of  that  city  sent  one  of 
his  officers  to  compliment  the  marshal  on  his  arrival  on  the  frontiers, 
and  to  express  the  Pasha's  full  belief  that  the  Russian  force  had  no 
design  of  breaking  the  peace  which  existed  between  the  two  em- 
pires. Munnich  replied  in  terms  of  vague  civility;  but  on  March 
27  he  passed  the  River  Don,  and  marched  on  Azov  with  such 
speed  and  secrecy  that  he  captured  two  of  the  outworks  of  the  city 
before  the  main  body  of  the  Tartars  knew  of  his  approach.  He 
then  invested  Azov  itself,  and  on  the  arrival  of  the  Russian  General 
Leontiev  with  reinforcements  Miinnich  left  him  to  carry  on  the 
siege  until  the  arrival  of  Count  Lacy,  for  whom  the  command  of 
tlie  operations  in  tliat  quarter  was  designed.  Miinnich  himself  on 
April  6  repaired  to  Tsarichanka,  where  the  main  Russian  army 
was  assembling,  which  was  to  effect  the  great  enterprise  of  the 
campaign,  the  invasion  of  the  Crimea, 

The  Russian  forces  for  this  operation,  when  concentrated  at 
Tsarichanka,  two  leagues  from  the  Dnieper,  on  May  19,  1736. 
consisted  of  twelve  regiments  of  dragoons,  fifteen  regimicnts  of 
regular  infantry,  ten  of  militia,  ten  squadrons  of  hussars,  5000 
Cossacks  of  the  Don,  4000  Cossacks  of  the  Ukraine,  and  3000 
Zaporogian  Cossacks,  amounting  altogether  to  54,000  men. 
IMiinnich  had  directed  every  regiment  to  take  with  it  supplies  of 
bread  for  two  months,  and  tlie  officers  were  bidden  to  make  similar 
provision  for  themselves.  Such  ample  magazines  had  been  pre- 
pared that  even  a  larger  supply  might  have  been  distributed ;  but 
the  means  of  transport  were  deficient.  Miinnich  was  unwilling  to 
defer  operations  until  more  wagons  and  beasts  of  burden  could  be 
collected,  but  lie  ordered  Prince  Trubetskoi  to  undertake  that  im- 
portant duty,  and  to  send  forward  continual  convoys  of  provisions 
with  tlie  fresli  regiments  which  had  not  yet  arri\-ed  but  were  on 
tlieir  marcli  to  join  the  army.  These  orders  of  the  marshal  were 
ill-obeyed  by  tlie  prince,  and  the  invading  forces  suffered  severely 
from  his  neglect. 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  303 

1736 

Miinnich  formed  his  army  in  five  columns  and  marched  down 
the  left  bank  of  the  Dnieper,  defeating  some  bodies  of  Tartar  horse 
which  had  advanced  to  reconnoiter  the  invaders;  they  then  moved 
by  Zelenaya  Dolina  and  Tchernaya  Dohna  to  the  banks  of  the 
little  River  Kolytschka.  Thence  he  marched  to  the  narrow  isthmus 
which  connects  the  Crimean  peninsula  with  the  continent,  and  on 
May  26,  1736,  the  Russian  marshal  halted  at  a  short  distance  from 
the  celebrated  lines  of  Perekop. 

These  lines  were  drawn  across  the  isthmus  a  little  to  the  north 
of  the  town  of  Perekop,  at  a  part  where  the  land  is  not  more  than 
five  miles  in  breadth,  from  the  Black  Sea,  to  that  recess  of  the  Sea 
of  Azov  which  is  called  the  Putrid  Sea.  The  defenses  consisted  of 
a  trench  about  thirty-six  feet  wide  and  twenty-five  feet  deep,  backed 
by  a  rampart  seventy  feet  high,  if  measured  to  its  summit  from  the 
bottom  of  the  ditch.  Six  stone  towers  strengthened  the  lines  and 
served  as  outworks  to  the  fortress  of  Perekop,  which  stood  behind 
them.  The  position  was  believed  by  the  Tartars  to  be  impregnable, 
and  they  assembled  here  under  their  Khan  against  Miinnich  to  the 
number  of  100,000,  aided  by  a  force  of  1800  Turkish  Janissaries, 
who  garrisoned  the  towers. 

Miinnich  first  sent  a  detachment  of  2500  men  and  some  pieces 
of  artillery  forward  on  his  left  (the  side  nearest  to  the  Sea  of 
Azov),  to  make  a  false  attack  on  that  quarter  and  draw  away  the 
enemy's  attention  from  the  Russian  right  (the  side  nearest  to  the 
Black  Sea),  on  which  he  designed  the  real  assault  to  l^e  given.  The 
maneuver  was  perfectly  successful ;  and  the  Tartars,  who  had 
hurried  to  the  eastern  part  of  the  lines  to  meet  the  Russian  de- 
tachment that  menaced  them,  were  thrown  into  alarm  and  con- 
fusion when  the  main  Russian  force  appeared,  in  six  strong 
columns,  advancing  steadily  and  rapidly  against  the  Tartar  left, 
on  the  western  part  of  their  position.  No  attempt  seems  to  have 
been  made  to  flood  the  ditch,  and  the  Russian  columns  descended 
into  it,  crossed  it,  and  began  to  clamlier  u])  the  opposite  rampart, 
while  their  batteries  poured  a  heavy  fire  upon  the  parapet  and  pre- 
vented the  Tartars  from  forming  so  as  to  offer  any  effective  oppo- 
sition. Terrified  at  seeing  tlie  enemy  thus  boldly  passing  through 
the  works  on  which  they  had  relied,  the  Tartars  betook  themselves 
to  flight;  and  the  Russians  surmounted  the  rampart,  and  drew  up 
on  the  southern  side  almost  without  resistance.  The  Russian  gen- 
eral, ^r.'uistein,  who  took  part  in  the  c\ents  of  the  day,  remarks  that 


304  TURKEY 

1736 

it  would  probably  have  been  impossible  to  force  the  lines  in  that 
manner  against  any  other  enemy  than  the  Tartars.  But  he  observes 
that  the  entrance  into  the  Crimea  would,  nevertheless,  have  been 
practicable,  inasmuch  as  the  neighboring  part  of  the  Sea  of  Azov 
is  so  shallow  in  summer  that  it  is  easily  fordable,  and  Perekop  can 
thus  be  always  turned,  even  if  it  cannot  be  stormed.  It  does  not 
appear  that  either  party  in  this  campaign  endeavored  to  avail  them- 
selves of  the  all-important  cooperation,  which  a  flotilla  of  heavily- 
armed  gunboats  would  give,  for  the  purpose  either  of  attack  or 
defense. 

The  tower  and  the  city  of  Perekop  were  speedily  captured  by 
the  victorious  Russians,  and  Miinnich  then  detached  General 
Leontiev  with  10,000  regular  troops  and  3000  Cossacks  to  attack 
the  fortress  of  Kilburn,  on  the  extremity  of  the  tongue  of  land  of 
the  same  name,  which  projects  into  the  Black  Sea  near  the  mouth 
of  the  River  Dnieper,  and  opposite  to  Ochakov  on  the  mainland. 
This  was  June  4,  and  on  the  same  day  the  marshal  held  a 
council  of  war,  in  which  the  future  operations  of  the  main  army 
were  considered.  The  greater  number  of  the  Russian  officers  were 
averse  to  entering  farther  into  the  Crimea,  and  they  pointed  out  to 
the  commander-in-chief  that  the  army  had  now  only  twelve  days' 
supply  of  bread.  They  urged  that  at  least  it  would  be  prudent  to 
halt  until  expected  convoys  of  provisions  arrived.  But  Miinnich 
was  eager  for  the  glory  of  being  the  conqueror  of  the  Crimea,  and 
would  not  rest  content  with  the  capture  of  Perekop.  He  told  his 
generals  that  if  they  advanced  boldly  into  the  Tartar  territory  they 
would  find  the  means  of  subsisting  at  the  enemy's  expense,  and  he 
refused  to  halt  longer  at  the  isthmus,  and  so  give  time  for  the 
Tartars  to  recover  from  their  panic.  The  army  accordingly  moved 
forward  across  the  steppes  of  the  northern  part  of  the  Crimean 
peninsula,  harassed  incessantly  by  the  Tartar  cavalry,  but  protected 
against  any  serious  attack  by  the  skillful  dispositions  of  the  marshal. 
Miinnich  formed  his  force  into  one  vast  hollow  square  composed  of 
several  battalions,  each  of  which  was  also  formed  in  square.  The 
baggage  was  in  the  middle.  This  arrangement  has,  since  his  time, 
been  generally  ado])ted  by  the  Russian  generals  when  acting  in  open 
countries  with  forces  chielly  of  infantry  against  large  masses  of 
hostile  cavalry.  As  Miinnich  advanced  he  kept  up  his  communi- 
cati()n  witli  I'erekcjj)  and  the  Ukraine  by  forming  little  redoubts  in 
favorable  jjositions,  at  a  short  distance  from  each  other.     Each  of 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  305 

1736 

them  was  garrisoned  by  an  officer,  and  ten  or  twelve  regular  foot 
soldiers  or  dragoons,  and  thirty  Cossacks.  A  complete  chain  of 
fortified  posts  was  thus  formed,  along  which  intelligence  was 
readily  transmitted.  General  Manstein  observes  that  it  was  aston- 
ishing to  the  army  to  find  how  vainly  the  Tartars  endeavored  to 
assail  their  little  citadels.  Not  one  of  them  was  captured,  and  it 
was  only  in  a  few  instances  that  the  Russian  couriers  failed  to  pass 
from  post  to  post  in  safety.  Besides  thus  preserving  the  army's 
communications,  the  soldiers  who  were  posted  along  the  line  of 
march  were  charged  with  the  useful  service  of  making  hay  and 
storing  it  up  for  the  supply  of  the  horses  of  the  army  on  their 
return,  when  the  herbage  of  the  steppes  was  likely  to  be  exhausted. 
Thus  arrayed,  and  with  these  precautions,  the  Russians  moved 
on  through  the  Crimea,  taking  also  constant  care  to  guard  against 
the  peril  which  they  incurred  from  the  Tartar  custom  of  setting 
fire  to  the  long  grass  of  the  steppes,  now  dried  by  the  fierce 
sunbeams  of  the  Crimean  summer.  Vessels  of  water  were  ordi- 
narily carried  in  the  numerous  wagons  that  accompanied  the  army 
for  the  refreshment  of  the  soldiers  while  on  the  march;  and  Miin- 
nich  now  ordered  that  every  wagon  and  carriage  should  be 
provided  with  the  means  of  putting  out  fire  ;  and  whenever  the  army 
lialted,  the  grass  and  soil  were  dug  up  and  removed  for  the  breadth 
of  three  feet  round  the  camp.  The  town  of  Koslov,  now  better 
known  as  Eupatoria,  on  the  western  coast  of  the  Crimea,  was  the 
first  point  on  which  Miinnich  marclied  on  leaving  Perekop.  Koslov 
was  considered  at  that  time  to  be  the  richest  commercial  city  in  the 
peninsula.  It  was  taken  and  sacked  by  the  Russians  on  June 
ly.  Thence  ]\Iunnich  led  his  troops  to  Bakchiserai  (the  Palace 
of  Gardens),  the  ancient  residence  of  the  Khans  of  the  Crimea. 
This  city  was  also  assaulted,  and  after  a  short  resistance  the  Tartar 
garrison  fled  from  their  post.  IMunnich  then  drew  his  Russians  and 
Cossacks  up  outside  the  defenseless  town,  and  sent  in  a  quarter  of 
his  army  at  a  time  to  pillage  for  a  fixed  number  of  hours.  The 
Ixirbarous  work  was  fully  accomplished.  Two  thousand  private 
houses  and  all  the  public  buildings  were  destroyed.  The  vast  palace 
of  the  Khans,  the  splendid  library  which  Selim  Gherai  had  founded 
and  that  which  had  been  collected  by  the  Jesuit  mission  in  the 
Crimea  perished  in  the  flames.  Simplieropolis,  to  the  northeast 
of  Bakchiserai,  was  next  attacked  by  the  Russians ;  its  inhabitants 
and  its  wealth  were  given  up  to  the  brutality  and  rapacity  of  the 


806  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1736 

soldiers,  its  buiklings  to  the  flames.  Miinnich  then  took  the  road 
towards  Kaffa,  with  the  desire  of  establishing  the  Russian  force 
permanently  in  tliat  advantageously  situated  city.  But  his  army, 
which  had  inflicted  so  much  misery  and  devastation  on  the  Crimea, 
was  itself  suffering  fearfully,  and  the  marshal  saw  his  ranks  dimin- 
ishing every  day,  not  by  battle,  but  by  disease,  want,  and  fatigue. 
The  Tartars  laid  waste  the  country  wherever  the  march  of  the  in- 
vading columns  was  pointed,  and  the  barbarous  cruelties  of  the 
Russians  themselves  cooperated  in  increasing  their  privations. 
General  Manstein  asserts  that  the  Crimean  campaign  of  1736  cost 
Russia  nearly  30,000  soldiers :  and  he  justly  censures  the  rashness 
of  Miinnich,  who  plunged  with  his  army  into  the  peninsula,  on  the 
sole  hope  that  perhaps  they  would  be  able  to  subsist  at  the  enemy's 
expense.  He  blames  also  the  excessive  severity  of  the  marshal  in 
discipline,  and  his  recklessness  in  imposing  unnecessary  fatigues  on 
the  soldiers.  He  states  that  the  Russians  were  so  exhausted  by 
their  sufferings  and  trials  that  men  used  to  drop  down  stark  dead 
on  the  march,  and  that  even  officers  died  of  famine  and  misery. 
^Miinnich  returned  to  Perekop  on  July  17,  and  evacuated  the 
Crimea  on  August  25,  having  first  razed  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  defenses  of  the  isthmus.  General  Manstein  observes 
as  a  proof  of  the  severity  of  the  losses  which  the  invaders  had  sus- 
tained that  every  Russian  regiment  which  entered  the  Crimea  in 
1736  had  its  full  complement  at  the  beginning  of  the  campaign — 
that  is  to  say,  each  regiment  of  infantry  was  1575  strong  and  each 
regiment  of  dragoons  1231.  But  when  the  army  was  reviewed  at 
Samara  by  Miinnich  at  the  end  of  September  there  was  not  a  single 
regiment  that  could  array  600  men  round  its  colors.  Never  in  the 
annals  of  warfare  had  the  sufferings  of  an  invading  force  been  more 
deeply  deserved.  The  whole  campaign  of  the  army  under  Miinnich 
in  the  Crimea  had  been  marked  by  the  most  atrocious  cruelty  and 
the  most  savage  spirit  of  devastation.  No  mercy  was  shown  by  the 
Russians  to  age  or  sex.  Towns  and  villages  were  fired  and  their 
inhabitants  slaughtered,  even  where  no  resistance  was  offered  to  the 
Russian  troops.  The  monuments  of  antiquity  were  wantonly  de- 
faced, libraries  and  schools  were  given  to  the  flames,  and  public 
buildings  and  places  of  worship  were  purposely  and  deliberately 
destroyed. 

The  Sultan's  arms  were  visited  but  by  a  single  gleam  of  suc- 
cess.   In  November,  when  the  survivors  of  Miinnich's  army  were  in 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  307 

1736-1737 

winter  quarters,  Feth  Ghirai,  the  new  Khan  of  the  Crimea  (his  pre- 
decessor Kaplan  Ghirai  having  been  deposed  by  the  Porte  for  want 
of  vigor  in  opposing  Miinnich's  invasion),  made  an  inroad  into  the 
Ukraine,  defeated  a  body  of  500  Russians  and  spread  devastation 
throughout  the  province.  The  Tartar  force  returned  to  the  Crimea 
with  a  Hving  booty  of  no  less  than  30,000  Russian  captives,  whom 
they  carried  off  into  slavery. 

The  Ottoman  court  was  solicitous  to  put  an  end  to  the  war 
with  Russia,  and  made  frequent  attempts  to  negotiate  a  peace, 
sometimes  through  the  intervention  of  France  and  Sweden,  and 
sometimes  through  that  of  Austria,  which  last  was  insidiously 
proffered  in  the  hopes  of  retarding  and  arresting  the  preparations 
of  the  Turks  for  a  new  campaign.  The  Emperor  Charles  VI.  was, 
in  reality,  eager  to  share  with  Russia  the  spoliation  of  the  Turkish 
provinces:  and  in  January,  1737,  a  secret  treaty  was  made  between 
the  courts  of  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg,  which  stipulated  that  the 
Austrian  armies  should  invade  Turkey  in  concert  with  the  Russian 
forces.  But  it  was  wished  that  the  emperor's  troops  should  have 
the  same  advantage  of  taking  the  Turks  by  surprise  which  the 
Russians  had  obtained  when  they  attacked  Azov  and  the  Crimea 
without  any  declaration  of  war.  The  Austrian  statesmen  therefore 
feigned  to  be  solicitous  for  peace,  and  a  congress  was  opened  at 
N'imirov,  in  which  the  empress's  and  the  emperor's  plenipotentiaries 
kept  up  the  hollow  show  of  negotiations  until  the  November  of  1737. 
Turkey  was  willing  to  make  great  sacrifices  for  the  sake  of  peace ; 
but  when  at  last  the  representatives  of  Russia  and  Austria  were 
pressed  into  a  declaration  of  the  terms  on  which  they  were  willing 
to  grant  it,  their  demands  were  such  as  to  be  unendurable  to  the 
Ottoman  spirit. 

While  the  diplomatists  of  Russia  and  Austria  had  been  spin- 
ning out  the  web  of  faithless  negotiation,  their  armies  had  attacked 
the  Turks  with  equal  ambition,  but  with  far  different  success. 

Mijnnich  took  the  field  two  months  before  congress  had  begun 
its  meetings  at  Nimirov  with  an  army  of  70,000  men  and  a  park 
of  artillery  that  numbered  600  pieces  of  different  caliber.  Aliinnich 
was  high  in  favor  with  the  court  at  St.  Petersl^urg,  which  cared 
little  for  the  cruel  sacrifice  of  troops  by  wliich  the  exploits  of  the 
last  campaign  had  been  purchased,  and  the  resources  of  the  empire 
were  freely  placed  at  the  marshal's  disposal  for  the  new  operations 
which  his  daring  ambition  suggested.    Aliinnich  employed  the  early 


308  TURKEY 

1737 

months  of  1737  in  the  collection  of  stores,  and  of  wagons,  in  the 
formation  of  a  flotilla  of  flat-bottom  gunboats,  and  in  perfecting 
the  organization  and  training  of  his  army.  His  severity  was  in- 
human ;  but  it  is  to  him  that  the  foundation  of  that  iron  discipline 
is  ascribed  by  which  the  Russian  armies  have  ever  since  been 
distinguished. 

Miinnich  left  to  General  Lacy  the  renewal  of  the  invasion  of 
the  Crimea.  His  design  for  the  main  army  under  his  own  command 
was  to  advance  down  the  northwestern  coast  of  the  Euxine  and  to 
capture  the  important  city  of  Ochakov.  He  crossed  the  River 
Boug  on  June  25  without  experiencing  the  least  opposition  from 
the  Turks,  whose  troops  were  slowly  assembling  at  Bender.  On 
July  10  the  Russian  forces  encamped  before  Ochakov.  The  Turk- 
ish generals  had  succeeded  in  throwing  a  division  of  their  best 
men  into  that  city  before  Miinnich  had  arrived,  and  the  Russian 
general  found  that  he  had  to  deal  with  a  garrison  20,000  strong, 
well  provided  with  artillery  and  stores  of  every  description.  The 
Turks  fought  bravely  and  made  many  desperate  sallies,  which  from 
the  number  of  troops  engaged  and  the  heaviness  of  the  slaughter 
deserve  to  be  considered  regular  battles.  IMiinnich's  men  suffered 
severely  from  want  of  provisions,  of  fascines,  and  other  ordinary 
materials  for  carrying  on  a  siege.  Still  Miinnich  persevered  with 
fierce  temerity,  which  his  own  generals  censured,  and  which  the 
marshal's  good  fortune  alone  crowned  with  success. 

After  a  cannonade  of  two  days  a  fire  was  observed  to  break  out 
in  the  city,  and  ]Miinnich  instantly  hurled  his  whole  army  on  the 
defenses,  without  regard  to  the  state  of  the  fortifications  in  the 
quarter  where  the  assault  was  given,  and  without  providing  his 
columns  with  ladders  or  fascines,  or  other  usual  means  for  passing 
any  obstacle  that  they  might  encounter.  The  Russians  forced  their 
way  to  the  foot  of  the  glacis  and  found  there  a  deep  trench,  which 
completely  checked  their  farther  advance.  With  unflinching  but 
useless  bravery  they  remained  there  nearly  two  hours,  under  a 
heavy  cannonade  and  musketry  fire  from  the  city,  to  which  they 
replied  by  useless  volleys.  At  length  they  broke  and  fled  back  in 
confusion,  and  had  the  Turkish  commander  followed  up  his  success 
by  a  \-igorous  sally  of  the  whole  garrison,  the  siege  must  have  been 
raised,  and  ^.Tiinnich's  army  would  have  been  almost  certainly  de- 
stroyed. But  only  a  few  hundred  of  the  garrison  followed  the  flying 
Russians,  and  Miinnich  was  able  before  lone  to  re-form  his  men 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  309 

1737 

and  prepare  for  a  renewal  of  the  attack.  The  conflagration  con- 
tinued to  spread  in  the  city,  and  early  on  the  morning  after  the  first 
assault  the  principal  Turkish  magazine  of  powder  exploded  and 
destroyed  6000  of  the  defenders.  The  Seraskier,  alarmed  at  this 
catastrophe,  and  seeing  the  flames  within  gathering  still  greater 
fury,  and  the  Russians  without  reassembling  for  the  charge,  hung 
out  the  white  flag  and  capitulated,  on  the  condition  of  surrendering 
himself  and  his  forces  prisoners  of  war.  While  the  capitulation  was 
being  arranged  the  Russian  hussars  and  Cossacks  of  the  Don  forced 
their  way  into  the  city  and  began  to  plunder  it.  The  Seraskier  and 
part  of  his  troops  had  already  marched  out  to  surrender,  but  the 
Russian  soldiery  attacked  them,  slaughtered  many,  and  drove  the 
rest  back  into  the  town.  The  Seraskier  sent  again  to  Miinnich  to 
say  that  he  surrendered  at  discretion,  and  to  beg  quarter  for  himself 
and  men.  The  Russian  commander  then  sent  forward  a  regiment  of 
guards,  who  conducted  the  Seraskier  and  between  3000  and  4000 
of  the  garrison  as  prisoners  to  the  Russian  camp.  But  great  num- 
bers of  the  Turks  were  massacred  without  mercy,  and  many  were 
drowned  in  a  vain  attempt  to  swim  off  to  some  Turkish  vessels 
which  had  been  moored  near  the  city  during  the  siege,  but  which 
on  seeing  its  capture  weighed  anchor  and  sailed  with  the  evil 
tidings  to  Constantinople.  The  bodies  of  more  than  17,000  Turks 
were  buried  by  the  victorious  Russians  when  they  took  possession 
of  Ochakov.  They  had  themselves  lost  in  killed  and  wounded 
during  their  short  but  sanguinary  siege  nearly  4000  men.  Disease, 
want,  and  fatigue  were,  as  usual,  still  more  deadly  scourges  to  the 
invaders.  ]Munnich  found  that  his  army  was  less  strong  by  20,000 
men  than  it  had  been  at  the  commencement  of  the  campaign.  He 
had  projected  a  further  advance  upon  Bender,  but  a  report  that  the 
Turks  had  fired  the  steppes  which  it  would  be  necessary  to  cross  in 
a  march  upon  that  city,  and  the  enfeebled  state  of  his  army,  made 
him  determine  on  returning  to  the  Ukraine,  after  repairing  the 
fortification  of  Ochakov  and  leaving  a  strong  garrison  to  secure 
his  conquest. 

In  the  meanwhile  Lacy  attacked  the  Crimea  with  a  force  of 
40,000  men,  supported  by  a  fleet  under  Admiral  Bredal  in  the  Black 
Sea  and  by  a  flotilla  of  armed  rafts  and  gunboats  which  Lacy 
caused  to  ])c  constructed  in  the  Sea  of  Azov.  The  Khan  of  the 
Crinie.'i  h:ul  ropairtM]  tlie  lines  of  Perekop  with  great  care,  and 
po.;ted  liis  army  Ijcliintl  tlicm,  with  the  intent  to  defend  them  nuich 


310  TURKEY 

1737 

better  against  Lacy  than  they  had  been  defended  by  his  predecessor 
against  Miinnich.  But  Lacy  marched  his  army  along  the  narrow 
bank  of  land  which  extends  from  near  Yenitchi  on  the  mainland 
toward  Arabat  in  the  Crimea,  nearly  across  the  whole  entrance  of 
the  Putrid  Sea.  He  formed  bridges  of  casks  and  rafts  over  the 
gaps  in  this  perilous  water,  and  entered  the  Crimea  on  July 
23,  1737,  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man.  He  defeated  the 
Tartars  near  Karasou  Bazaar,  and  then  led  his  men  up  and  down 
through  the  devoted  country,  pillaging,  burning,  and  slaying,  after 
the  manner  of  Miinnich's  troops  in  the  preceding  year.  Lacy  left 
the  Crimea  in  August  by  a  bridge  which  he  formed  over  the  nar- 
row part  of  the  Putrid  Sea  near  Shungar.  The  Russians  boasted 
that  during  this  short  invasion  they  had  burned  6000  houses,  thirty- 
eight  mosques,  two  churches,  and  fifty  mills. 

Austria  commenced  her  treacherous  attack  upon  Turkey  in 
1737  by  suddenly  assailing  the  city  of  Nish,  in  imitation  of 
Miinnich's  advance  against  Azov  in  the  preceding  year.  One  im- 
perialist army,  under  Field-Marshal  Seckendorf,  entered  the  Otto- 
man territory  in  Servia  in  the  month  of  July,  and  at  the  same  time 
other  Austrian  forces  were  marched  against  the  Turkish  pos- 
sessions in  Bosnia.  Nish  was  captured  without  difficulty,  and 
Seckendorf  then  sent  part  of  his  army  against  Widdin;  but  the 
Turks  had  time  to  strengthen  the  garrison  of  that  city,  and  the 
invaders  perished  rapidly  by  disease  and  want  in  their  marches  and 
counter-marches  along  the  banks  of  the  Timok  and  the  Danube. 
The  Austrians  had  begun  tlie  war  in  a  spirit  of  overweening  pride 
in  their  own  military  skill  and  prowess,  and  in  arrogant  contempt 
of  their  enemy.  Full  of  recollections  of  the  triumphs  of  Eugene, 
they  thought  that  the  superiority,  which  under  that  great  captain 
they  had  maintained  over  the  Ottomans,  was  certain  to  continue, 
and  that  to  advance  against  the  Turks  was  necessarily  to  conquer. 
The  cabinet  of  Vienna  was  even  more  arrogant  and  rash  than  the 
officers  whom  it  employed.  When  one  of  the  generals  proposed 
to  the  army-board  at  Vienna  that  the  palpable  weakness  of  the 
artillery  force  should  be  remedied  by  providing  each  battalion  with 
two  field-pieces,  his  request  was  rejected,  on  the  principle  that  the 
emperor's  armies  had  always  defeated  the  Turks,  notwithstanding 
any  deficiency  in  cannon,  and  that  the  same  would  continue  to  be  the 
case.  1  he  natural  results  of  such  a  spirit  in  the  camp  and  council 
were  visible  early  in  the  campaign.     It  was  found  that  the  Turks 


M  AH  MUD     I  311 

1737-1738 

fought  with  courage  and  skill ;  and  rash  attempts  on  the  part  of  the 
imperiahsts  met  with  severe  repulses.  At  the  first  appearance  of 
reverse  the  Austrian  generals  began  to  quarrel  among  themselves, 
and  the  calamities  of  their  troops  soon  increased.  On  the  Turkish 
side  the  Grand  Vizier  took  the  command,  ably  assisted  by  the 
French  renegade  Bonneval,  the  fruits  cf  whose  military  ability  were 
manifested  in  the  unusual  accuracy  of  the  maneuvers  of  the  Otto- 
man forces  and  in  the  improved  discipline  of  the  troops.  After  a 
short  and  inglorious  campaign  Seckendorf  led  the  remains  of  his 
army  back  into  Hungary.  The  Turks  recovered  Nish  and  pene- 
trated at  several  points  into  the  Austrian  territories.  In  Bosnia  the 
result  of  the  campaign  was  similar.  The  Mohammedan  population 
of  that  province  resisted  the  invading  imperialists  with  enthusiastic 
valor,  and  though  the  Austrian  troops  at  first  gained  some  ad- 
vantages, they  were  before  the  close  of  the  year  driven  back  out  of 
Bosnia  with  disgrace  and  loss. 

In  the  following  year  the  emperor  placed  new  generals  at  the 
head  of  his  armies,  and  a  new  Grand  Vizier,  Yegen  Mohammed 
Pasha,  led  the  Ottomans  against  them.  The  Turks  did  not  wait 
for  the  advance  of  the  Austrians,  but  acted  on  the  offensive  in  great 
force  and  with  remarkable  boldness.  They  took  Mehadia  in 
Hungary,  and  laid  siege  to  the  important  fortress  of  Orsova  on  the 
Danube.  The  Austrians  were  successful  in  an  action  at  Kornia 
near  Mehadia,  July  4,  1738,  against  Hadji  Mohammed,  but  their 
loss  of  men  was  greater  than  that  of  the  Turks,  and  the  Grand 
Vizier,  coming  up  with  fresh  forces,  drove  the  imperialist  army 
back,  captured  Semendria,  and  resumed  the  siege  of  Orsova,  which 
surrendered  to  the  Ottomans  on  August  15.  The  Austrian 
commanders,  disunited  and  disheartened,  led  their  troops  back  in 
precipitate  retreat  within  the  walls  and  lines  of  Belgrade.  The 
Turkish  cavalry  followed  them  and  occupied  the  heights  near  that 
city,  where  the  imperialist  army  lay  shamefully  inactive  and  the 
prey  of  pestilential  disorders.  A  body  of  Austrian  hussars  tluiL 
ventured  to  encounter  the  Turks  was  routed  with  severe  loss ;  and 
the  Grand  Vizier,  when  he  recalled  his  cavalry  from  Belgrade, 
closed  the  campaign  amid  merited  honors  and  rewards,  which  the 
Sultan  caused  to  be  distributed  to  the  general  and  officers  of  the 
armv.  and  to  every  ])rivate  soldier  who  had  distinguished  himself 
by  bravery  and  good  conduct. 

Though   less  brilliantly   successful   against   the   Russians,    the 


312  TURKEY 

1738 

Turks  during  the  year  1738  prevented  those  formidable  enemies 
from  making  any  important  progress  along  the  coast  of  the  Black 
Sea.  Marshal  Munnich  again  led  his  army  across  the  Dnieper  and 
the  Bong,  and  defeated  several  bodies  of  Turkish  and  Tartar  troops 
that  encountered  him  near  those  rivers.  But  on  arriving  at  the 
Dniester  he  found  a  powerful  Ottoman  army  strongly  entrenched 
in  a  position  which  he  was  unable  to  force,  and  which  barred  his 
intended  advance  for  the  purpose  of  besieging  Bender.  But  disease 
and  the  want  of  supplies  were  as  usual  much  more  deadly  enemies 
to  the  Russians  than  either  Turkish  or  Tartar  swords,  and  Munnich 
returned  in  the  autumn  to  the  Ukraine  with  an  army  that  had 
accomplished  little  and  suffered  much. 

]\Iarshal  Lacy  repeated  the  invasion  of  the  Crimea  in  the  July 
of  this  year.  He  appeared  with  an  army  of  from  30,000  to  35,000 
men  at  the  northern  part  of  the  Isthmus  of  Perekop ;  and  the  Khan, 
who  thought  that  the  Russians  now  really  meant  to  penetrate  the 
Crimea  by  that  route,  prepared  for  an  obstinate  defense  of  the  lines. 
But  Lacy  turned  them  without  the  loss  of  a  life.  The  inlet  of  the 
Sea  of  Azov,  which  adjoins  the  eastern  side  of  the  isthmus,  is  shal- 
low at  all  times,  and  especially  so  in  summer.  The  consequence  is, 
that  if  the  wind  at  that  season  blows  for  a  few  hours  stronglv  from 
the  west,  and  drives  back  the  water,  the  passage  from  the  mainland 
to  the  Crimea  may  be  effected  without  making  use  of  the  Isthmus 
of  Perekop.  On  July  7  the  favorable  wnnd  sprang  up,  and  Lacy 
instantly  formed  his  army  in  a  single  line  along  the  coast  and 
marched  them  across  the  bed  of  the  gulf,  before  the  wind  had  lulled 
and  the  waves  returned.  A  few  baggage-wagons  that  followed  in 
the  rear  were  lost,  the  wind  having  ceased  to  blow-  from  the  west 
soon  after  the  Russian  troops  had  effected  their  passage.  Lacy 
immediately  took  the  Tartar  position  at  Perekop  in  the  rear.  That 
city  surrendered  on  the  8th,  and  the  Russians  were  successful  in  an 
engagement  on  which  the  Tartars  ventured  against  part  of  Lacy's 
army.  Lacy's  object  in  this  campaign  was  to  obtain  possession  of 
Kaffa.  then  the  strongest  place  in  the  Crimea  and  the  mastery  of 
wliich  was  considered  to  involve  the  conquest  of  the  wliole  penin- 
sula. Rut  tlic  ravages  of  the  Russian  armies  in  the  preced- 
ing years  liad  so  wasted  the  country  that  Lacy  could  not  find 
the  means  of  suljsistence  for  his  army.  The  Russian  fleet,  which 
Avas  ordered  to  l)ring  him  supplies,  was  blown  off  the  coast  and 
severely  damaged  bv  a  storm.    After  a  few  ineffectual  marches  and 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  313 

1738-1739 

counter-marches  the  Russians  were  obhged  to  return  to  Perekop 
and  thence  to  their  own  country. 

Negotiations  for  peace  had  been  frequently  resumed  during  the 
war,  and  in  the  winter  of  1738  fresh  attempts  to  terminate  hos- 
tihties  were  made  under  the  mediation  of  France.  But  these  were 
baffled  by  the  exorbitant  demands  which  the  Russian  court  con- 
tinued to  put  forward.  Marshal  Munnich  was  the  great  inspirer 
of  this  ambitious  spirit  in  the  councils  of  the  empress,  and  the 
vehement  opposer  of  peace.  He  had  repaired  to  the  Russian  capital 
at  the  close  of  the  campaign  of  1738,  and  employed  all  his  influence 
to  cause  the  continuance  of  the  war,  and  to  induce  Russia  to  strike 
boldly  for  the  conquest  of  Constantinople  itself.  He  proposed  to 
effect  this  not  merely  by  Russian  arms,  but  by  raising  the  Christian 
subjects  of  the  Turks  against  their  master.  He  pointed  out  to  the 
court  of  St.  Petersburg  what  w^as  the  true  state  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  in  Euro])e,  with  its  Mohammedan  population  so  many  times 
outnumbered  by  the  millions  of  Rayas,  who  had  been  oppressed  for 
centuries,  but  who  had  never  ceased  to  hate  their  conquerors,  and 
who  were  now  watching  with  anxious  joy  the  progress  of  the 
Russian  power.  He  told  the  empress  that  all  the  Greeks  regarded 
her  as  their  legitimate  sovereign,  and  that  the  strongest  excitement 
])revailed  among  them.  "  Now,"  he  said,  "  now  is  the  time  to  take 
advantage  of  their  enthusiasm  in  our  cause,  and  to  march  upon 
Constantinople,  while  the  effect  which  our  victories  have  produced 
is  fresh  and  vivid.  Such  an  opportunity  may  never  be  offered 
again."  The  Empress  Anne  adopted  readily  this  "  Oriental 
P'roject,"  as  it  was  termed,  of  Marshal  ]\Iiinnich.  The  army  in  the 
south  of  Russia  was  largely  recruited,  and  emissaries  were  sent  into 
Epirus  and  Thessaly  to  prepare  the  inhabitants  for  a  rising  against 
the  Turks.  IMiinnich  determined  in  1739  to  gain  the  right  bank  of 
the  Dniester  without  exposing  his  troops  to  the  sufferings  and 
losses  which  lie  knew  by  experience  were  the  inevitable  attendants 
of  the  march  along  the  northwestern  coast  of  the  Euxine.  He  ac- 
cordingly led  his  army  into  Podolia,  audaciously  violating  the 
neutral  territory  of  the  Polish  state,  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances 
that  were  addressed  to  him  against  this  contemptuous  breach  of  the 
law  of  nations.  S])reading  desolation  round  them  as  if  in  an 
enemy's  country,  Afiinnich's  Russians  and  Cossacks  traversed 
PodoHa  and  crossed  ihe  Dniester  into  Moldavia  at  Sukowza 
(August    1.2,   1739).  about  six  leagues  from  the  Turkish  fortress 


314  TURKEY 

1739 

of  Chotim.  The  Seraskier  of  Bender,  Veli  Pasha,  took  up  a 
position  in  front  of  Chotim,  but  was  completely  defeated  on 
August  1 8,  and  Chotim  surrendered  a  few  days  after  the  battle 
to  the  Russians.  Aliinnich  proclaimed  Cantemir  (a  descendant  of 
the  former  rulers  of  IMoldavia),  Prince  of  Moldavia  under  Russian 
protection,  and  Cantemir  immediately  raised  the  natives  in  arms 
against  the  Ottomans  and  the  Sultan's  viceroy.  Miinnich  marched 
upon  Jassy,  the  capital  of  the  province,  and  he  and  Prince  Cantemir 
entered  that  city  without  opposition.  Thence  the  Russian  general 
wheeled  into  Bessarabia,  intending  to  reduce  Bender  and  the  other 
strong  places  of  that  district,  and  so  secure  his  base  of  operations 
before  he  advanced  southward  into  the  heart  of  European  Turkey. 
But  he  was  checked  in  the  mid  career  of  triumph  by  tidings  of  the 
disastrous  defeats  which  his  Austrian  allies  had  been  sustaining  on 
the  Upper  Danube,  and  of  the  still  more  disgraceful  terms  on  which 
they  had  begged  peace  of  the  common  enemy. 

The  main  Austrian  force  was  assembled  near  Peterwaradin 
in  May.  It  amounted  to  56,000  men,  without  reckoning  the  artillery- 
men, or  the  hussars,  and  other  light  and  irregular  troops.  Marshal 
Wallis  intended  to  commence  the  campaign  by  the  siege  of  Orsova, 
and  he  had  positive  orders  from  the  emperor  to  fight  a  pitched 
battle  with  the  enemy  at  the  first  opportunity.  The  Austrians 
crossed  the  River  Save  on  June  27,  and  marched  along  the  right 
bank  of  the  Danube  toward  Orsova.  The  Turkish  army  un- 
der the  Grand  Vizier  Elhadj  Alohammed  Pasha  advanced  through 
Semendria  and  took  up  a  strong  position  on  the  high  ground  near 
Krotzka.  Wallis  on  approaching  Krotzka  thought  that  he  had  only 
a  detachment  of  the  Turks  to  deal  with,  and  hurried  forward 
through  a  deep  defile  with  only  the  cavalry  of  his  army  to  the  en- 
counter. On  debouching  from  the  hollow  way  the  Austrian  horse 
regiments  found  themselves  among  vineyards  and  tracts  of  under- 
wood, where  it  was  impossible  for  them  to  form  line  or  charge,  and 
they  were  assailed  in  all  directions  by  a  heavy  musketry  fire  from 
the  Turkish  infantry  which  the  Vizier  had  skillfully  posted  round 
the  mouth  of  the  defile.  Unsupported  by  any  foot  or  artillery,  the 
Austrian  cavalry  suffered  severe  loss,  and  was  driven  back  in  dis- 
order through  the  pass.  The  Turks  advanced,  occupying  the 
heights  on  either  side  of  the  road,  and  assailed  the  right  wing  of 
the  Austrian  infantry.  A  furious  engagement  was  maintained  in 
this  part  of  the  field  lill  sunset,  when  Wallis  drew  back  his  troops  to 


M  AH  MUD     I  315 

1739 

Vinza.  The  Austrian  loss  in  the  battle  of  Krotzka  was  more  than 
10,000  in  killed  and  wounded,  and  though  the  Turks  also  had  suf- 
fered severely  in  the  latter  part  of  the  action,  they  were  in  the  highest 
degree  elated  by  their  victory.  The  Austrian  general,  whose  de- 
spondency equaled  his  former  presumption,  soon  fell  back  upon 
Belgrade.  The  Turks  followed  and  opened  their  batteries  against 
the  city,  the  soldiers  exclaiming,  "  Let  us  take  advantage  of  the 
panic  and  blindness  which  God  has  inflicted  upon  the  unbelievers 
for  having  broken  the  Peace  of  Passarowitz."  Wallis  and  Neipperg 
now  endeavored  to  obtain  terms  from  the  Grand  Vizier,  and  a  series 
of  negotiations  ensued,  in  which  the  Austrian  generals  and  pleni- 
potentiaries showed  infatuation,  cowardice,  and  folly  even  greater 
than  General  Mack  afterward  displayed  in  the  memorable  capitula- 
tion of  Ulm.  The  French  ambassador,  Villeneuve,  came  to  the 
Grand  Vizier's  camp  near  Belgrade  to  give  the  mediation  and  guar- 
antee of  France  to  the  pacification  which  Wallis  and  Neipperg 
sought  with  almost  shameless  avidity.  Preliminary  articles  were 
signed  on  September  i,  by  which  Austria  was  to  restore  to  the 
Porte  the  city  of  Belgrade  and  all  the  districts  in  Bosnia,  Servia, 
and  Wallachia,  which  the  emperor  had  taken  from  the  Sultan  at 
the  Peace  of  Passarowitz.  As  a  security  for  the  execution  of  these 
preliminaries,  a  gate  of  Belgrade  was  given  up  to  the  Turks.  It  was 
stipulated  by  the  Austrians  that  Turkey  should  at  the  same  time 
make  peace  with  Russia,  and  messengers  were  sent  accordingly  to 
the  camp  of  Aliinnich.  The  victorious  Russian  general  received  the 
intelligence  of  the  convention  of  Belgrade  with  the  greatest  indig- 
nation ;  but  he  knew  that  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  resume  his 
march  upon  Constantinople  with  the  powerful  and  victorious  army 
of  the  Vizier  free  to  act  against  his  flank,  and  Russia  reluctantly 
consented  to  terminate  a  war  which  had  cost  her  such  heavy  sacri- 
fices in  treasure  and  in  men,  at  the  very  time  when  her  most 
ambitious  schemes  of  conquest  seemed  to  be  on  the  eve  of 
realization. 

The  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Belgrade,  as  finally  arranged  be- 
tween the  Porte  and  Austria,  were  substantially  the  same  as  those 
of  the  preliminary  articles.  The  treaty  between  Russia  and  Turkev 
provided  that  the  city  of  Azov  should  be  demolished  and  its  terri- 
tory remain  desert  as  a  borderland  for  tlie  two  empires.  Russia 
was  to  be  at  liberty  to  erect  a  fortress  on  tlie  Kuban,  but  Taganrog 
was  not  to  be  rebuilt.     Tt  was  expressly  provided  by  the  third  article 


'.U6  TURKEY 

1739-1768 

of  the  treaty  that  Russia  should  keep  up  no  fleet  either  in  the  Sea 
of  Azov  or  in  the  Black  Sea,  and  that  she  should  build  no  vessels 
of  war  on  the  coast  of  any  part  of  those  seas.  She  acknowledged 
the  independence  of  the  Kabartas,  and  a  commission  was  appointed 
to  fix  the  boundary  line  between  the  two  empires.  This  gave 
Russia  an  increase  of  territory  on  the  side  of  the  Ukraine.  Chotim 
and  the  other  conquests  of  Russia  in  Moldavia  and  Bessarabia  were 
restored,  and  the  treaty  gave  to  the  subjects  of  both  the  Turkish 
and  Russian  sovereigns  assurance  of  pardon  for  anything  done  by 
them  during  the  war. 

Such  was  the  Peace  of  Belgrade,  one  of  the  most  honorable 
and  advantageous  for  Turkey  that  she  has  ever  made  with  European 
powers.  It  marks  the  reign  of  Sultan  Mahmud  I.  with  luster,  which 
is  the  more  conspicuous  from  the  contrast  between  this  pacification 
and  the  humiliating  and  calamitous  character  of  the  treaties  by 
which  subsequent  struggles  of  the  house  of  Othman  with  its 
European  neighbors  have  been  concluded. 

The  evil  day  seemed  now  to  be  long  deferred.  A  period  of  rest 
from  the  perils  of  war,  unusually  long  in  Ottoman  history,  inter- 
venes between  the  signature  of  Turkey's  treaties  with  Austria  and 
Russia  in  1739  and  the  calamitous  renewal  of  her  strife  with  the 
latter  power  in  1768.  Not  that  these  twenty-nine  years  were 
seasons  of  perfect  calm.  A  war  with  Persia  broke  out  in  1743,  but 
was  terminated  in  1746  by  a  treaty  which  made  little  change  in  the 
old  arrangements  between  the  two  empires  that  had  been  fixed  in 
the  reign  of  IMurad  IV.  There  were  from  time  to  time  the  cus- 
tomary numbers  of  tumults  and  insurrections  in  various  territories 
of  the  Sublime  Porte;  and  the  governors  of  remote  provinces  oc- 
casionally assumed  practical  independence,  disregarding  the  Sul- 
tan's commands,  though  professing  allegiance  to  him,  and  handing 
down  their  power  from  father  to  son,  as  if  they  were  hereditary 
potentates  in  their  own  right.  These  disorders  were  sometimes 
quelled  and  sometimes  overlooked,  according  to  the  relative 
strength  and  weakness,  vigilance  and  supineness,  of  the  central  gov- 
ernment and  the  insubordinate  provincials.  The  most  serious  of 
these  internal  disturbances  of  the  empire  were  those  that  became 
chronic  in  Egypt,  proving  that  the  magnificent  conquest  of  Selim 
the  Inflexible  was  gradually  passing  away  from  the  feeble  grasp  of 
his  successors. 

The  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Sultan  Mahmud    I.    is    made 


M  A  H  M  U  D     I  317 

1748-1768 

memorable  not  only  in  Turkish  history,  but  in  the  general  history 
of  Mohammedanism  by  the  rise  and  rapid  increase  of  the  sect  of 
the  Wahabites  in  Arabia.  These  Puritans  of  Islam  (of  which  they 
claimed  to  be  the  predestined  reformers  and  sole  true  disciples)  were 
so  named  after  their  founder,  Abdul  Wahab,  which  means  "  The 
Servant  of  the  All-Disposer."  This  leader  was  born  at  Alaynah, 
in  Arabia,  near  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  of  the  Christian 
era  and  about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century  after  the  Hejira. 
His  father  was  Sheik  of  his  village,  and  young  Abdul  Wahab  was 
educated  in  the  divinity  schools  at  Bassora,  where  he  made  rapid 
progress  in  Mohammedan  learning  and  at  the  same  time  grew  con- 
vinced that  the  creed  of  the  Prophet  had  been  overlaid  by  a  foul 
heap  of  superstition,  and  that  he  himself  was  called  on  to  become  its 
reformer.  He  returned  to  Arabia,  where,  fearless  of  danger  and 
unbaffled  by  temporary  failure,  he  proclaimed  his  stern  denuncia- 
tions of  the  prevalent  tenets  and  practices  of  the  mosque  and  state. 
He  inveighed  particularly  against  the  worship  of  saints,  which  had 
grown  up  among  the  ]Mohammedans,  against  their  pilgrimages 
to  supposed  holy  places,  and  against  their  indulgence  in  several 
pleasures  which  the  Koran  prohibited.  At  first  he  met  with  ridicule 
and  persecution  from  those  to  whom  he  preached ;  but  he  gradually 
made  converts,  and  at  length  his  doctrines  were  adopted  by  Mo- 
hammed Ben  Suoud,  the  Sheik  of  the  powerful  tribe  of  the  Mes- 
salikhs,  who  at  the  same  time  married  Abdul  Wahab's  daughter. 
The  new  sect  now  became  a  formidable  political  and  military  body, 
Abdul  Wahab  continuing  to  be  its  spiritual  chief,  but  the  active 
duties  of  military  command  being  committed  to  Ben  Suoud,  who 
enforced  the  new  faith  by  the  sword,  as  had  been  done  previously 
by  the  Prophet  and  the  early  Caliphs.  Aziz,  the  son,  and  Suoud,  the 
grandson  of  ^^lohammed  Ben  Suoud,  continued  the  same  career  of 
armed  proselytism  with  increased  fervor,  and  the  Wahabite  sect 
spread  through  every  region  of  Arabia.  The  attempts  of  successive 
Sultans  and  Pashas  to  quell  this  heresy  and  rebellion  were  in  vain 
until  the  Pasha  of  Egypt,  Mohammed  Ali,  undertook  the  task.  He 
o\ertlirew  the  temi)oral  empire  of  the  Wahabites  and  sent  their  last 
Kniir  in  chains  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  beheaded  in  1818. 
But  the  W^ahabitc  doctrines  are  said  still  to  prevail  among  many  of 
the  Bedouin  tribes. 

Tlie  pacific  policy  maintained  by  Turkey  toward  Austria  upon 
the  death  of  the  Emperor  Charles  VT.  in  1740  is  the  more  honorable 


318  TURKEY 

1748-1763 

to  the  Ottoman  nation,  by  reason  of  the  contrast  between  it  and  the 
lawless  rapacity  which  was  shown  by  nearly  all  the  Christian  neigh- 
bors of  the  dominions  of  the  young  Austrian  sovereign,  Maria 
Theresa.  The  King  of  Prussia,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  the  Elector 
of  Saxony,  and  the  Kings  of  France,  Spain,  and  Sardinia,  agreed 
to  dismember  the  Austrian  Empire,  and  began  the  war  of  spoliation 
(called  the  war  of  the  Austrian  Succession),  which  was  terminated 
by  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in  1748.  Sultan  Mahmud  not  only 
scrupulously  abstained  from  taking  any  part  against  Austria,  the 
old  enemy  of  his  house,  but  he  offered  his  mediation  to  terminate 
the  hostilities  which  raged  between  the  powers  of  Christendom. 
With  equal  justice  and  prudence  the  Turks  took  care  not  to  become 
entangled  in  the  other  great  European  contest  which  followed  that 
of  the  Austrian  Succession  after  no  very  long  interval,  and  which 
from  the  period  of  its  duration  (1756- 1763),  is  known  in  history 
as  the  Seven  Years'  War. 

Sultan  Mahmud  I.  had  died  ( 1754)  before  the  outbreak  of  this 
last-mentioned  contest,  but  his  brother  and  successor,  Othman  III., 
adhered  to  the  same  system  of  moderation  and  non-interference 
which  his  predecessor  had  established,  and  he  thus  preserved  peace 
for  the  Ottoman  Empire  during  his  three  years'  reign,  from  1754 
to  1757.  He  was  succeeded  by  Sultan  Mustapha  III.,  the  son  of 
Sultan  Ahmed  III.  The  name  of  ^Mustapha  has  always  been  ac- 
companied in  Turkish  history  by  calamity  and  defeat,  and  we  now 
approach  the  time,  when,  under  the  third  Sultan  of  that  inauspicious 
designation,  the  struggle  between  the  Porte  and  Russia  was  re- 
sumed, with  even  heavier  disasters  to  Turkey  than  those  which  she 
endured  when  she  strove  against  Austria  and  Prince  Eugene  in  the 
reign  of  Sultan  T^Iustapha  II. 

The  first  years,  however,  of  Mustapha  III.  were  not  un- 
promising or  unprosperous.  The  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
the  empire  was  directed  by  the  Grand  Vizier  Raghib  Pasha,  a  min- 
ister not  perhaps  equal  to  the  great  Ottoman  statesmen  Sokolli 
and  tlie  second  and  third  Kiuprilis,  but  a  man  of  sterling  integrity, 
and  of  high  diplomatic  abilities.  The  chief  efforts  of  Raghib  Pasha 
himself  were  directed  to  the  strengthening  of  Turkey  against  the 
inveterate  hostility  of  the  courts  of  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg  by 
alliances  with  other  states  of  Christendom.  The  results  of  the  War 
of  Succession  and  of  the  Seven  Years'  War  had  been  to  bring 
Prussia  fcM'ward  as  a  new  power  of  the  first  magnitude  in  Europe. 


i-;    AM  l',A.->,\|i(IK    u\-     FKF.IH.KK   K      II.     At  i  d  M  I' A  M  Kl  i     lA       1111-     (,lv\Mi     \  I  /  1  KK 
KACHir,    I'ASIIA.    (i\     rill-.    i<(iA|i     1(1     illK    "Sir.l.lMi:    I'uKIK,"    K)    SICN 
HIE    TREATY    OF    A  M  IIA     BKIWKKX     I'K1>>1A    AM)    TL'KKEV 
l\iintin)i    ('.y    A.    Miich.i 


MAHMUD     I  319 

1760-1763 

Prussia,  from  her  geographical  position,  had  nothing  to  gain  by 
any  losses  which  might  befall  Turkey;  and  both  Austria  and  Russia 
had  been  bitter  and  almost  deadly  foes  to  the  great  sovereign  of 
the  house  of  Brandenburg,  Frederick  11.  A  treaty  therefore  between 
Prussia  and  Turkey  seemed  desirable  for  the  interests  of  both  states, 
and  many  attempts  had  been  made  to  effect  one  before  Raghib 
Pasha  held  the  seals  as  Grand  Vizier.  At  length  in  1761  the  envoy 
of  Frederick  II,  to  Constantinople  signed  a  treaty  of  amity  between 
Prussia  and  the  Porte,  similar  to  treaties  which  the  Turkish  court 
had  already  concluded  with  Sweden,  Naples,  and  Denmark.  But 
Raghib  Pasha's  design  was  to  convert  these  preliminary  articles  into 
a  treaty  of  offensive  and  defensive  alliance.  The  English  ambassa- 
dor strove  earnestly  to  forward  this  scheme,  while  the  ministers  of 
Austria  and  Russia  endeavored  to  retard  and  baffle  it.  Considerable 
progress  had  been  made  in  the  negotiations,  when  the  death  of 
Raghib  Pasha  in  1763  put  an  end  to  a  project,  which,  if  successful, 
would  certainly  have  been  followed  by  a  new  war  with  Austria.  In 
that  war  the  Prussians  would  have  cooperated  with  the  Turks,  and 
it  might  have  materially  varied  the  whole  current  of  subsequent 
Ottoman  history. 


Chapter    XX 

CATHERINE    II.    OF   RUSSIA   AND   LOSS   OF   THE 
CRIMEA.     1763-1774 

/I  FTER  the  death  of  Raghib  Pasha  in  1763  Sultan  Mus- 
/-\  tapha  III.  governed  for  himself.  He  was  a  prince  of  con- 
jL  JL  siderable  industry  and  talent,  and  honestly  desirous  of  pro- 
moting the  interests  of  the  Ottoman  Empire ;  but  he  was  hasty 
and  headstrong,  and  he  often  proved  unfortunate  during  the  latter 
part  of  his  reign  in  his  selection  of  councilors  and  of  commanders. 
And  the  scepter  of  the  power  most  inimical  and  most  formidable  to 
Turkey  was  now  grasped  by  one  of  the  most  ambitious,  the  most  un- 
scrupulous, and  also  the  ablest  sovereigns,  that  ever  swayed  the  vast 
resources  of  the  Russian  Empire.  Catherine  II.  (who  has  been 
termed  with  such  terrible  accuracy  both  as  to  her  public  and  private 
character,  the  Semiramis  of  the  North)  reigned  at  St.  Petersburg. 
A  military  revolution  had  placed  her  on  the  throne  instead  of  her 
weak  husband,  and  it  was  only  by  preserving  the  favor  of  the 
Russian  army,  and  by  encouraging  the  fanaticism  of  the  Russian 
people,  that  she  could  hope  to  preserve  her  royalty  or  her  life.  The 
military  chiefs  by  whom  her  husband  had  been  murdered  and  who 
were  her  own  personal  favorites,  the  Orlovs,  and  their  associates 
were  eager  for  hostilities.  The  Porte  watched  with  anxiety  and 
alarm  the  aggressive  but  insidious  policy  which  was  pursued  toward 
every  weak  state  that  was  within  the  sphere  of  Russian  influence. 
That  policy  was  to  foment  disturbances  and  civil  war ;  to  interfere 
in  the  pretended  character  of  a  friend  of  the  weaker  party;  to  sow 
the  seeds  of  new  and  worse  dissensions,  and  then  to  make  the  misery 
and  anarchy  which  Russian  arts  had  produced  the  pretext  for  the 
subjugation  of  the  exhausted  state  by  Russian  arms.  It  was  in 
Poland,  "  that  commonwealth  of  common  woe,"  ^  that  this 
Muscovite  Machiavelism  was  chiefly  practiced  during  the  first  years 
of  Catherine's  reign.  Prussia  became  the  accomplice  of  Russia 
against  Poland.  Frederick  II.  no  longer  sought  the  alliance  of 
1  The  phrase  is  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's,  applied  by  him  to  Ireland. 

320 


C  A  T  H  E  R  I  N  E     1 1  821 

1764-1768  ' 

Turkey  against  his  old  enemies  at  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg,  but 
concluded  in  1764  a  treaty  with  Catherine  by  which  the  two 
parties  mutually  pledged  themselves  to  maintain  each  other  in  pos- 
session of  their  respective  territories,  and  agreed  that  if  either 
power  were  attacked,  the  other  should  supply  an  auxiliary  force  of 
10,000  foot  and  1000  horse.  But  it  was  expressly  provided  that  if 
Russia  were  assailed  by  the  Turks,  or  Prussia  by  the  French,  the 
aid  should  be  sent  in  money. 

The  Ottoman  court  protested  continually  but  vainly  against 
the  occupation  of  Poland  by  Russian  and  Prussian  troops;  against 
the  disgraceful  circumstances  of  fraud  and  oppression  under  which 
the  election  of  Catherine's  favorite,  Stanislaus  Poniatowski,  as  king, 
was  forced  upon  the  Poles;  and  against  the  dictatorship  which  the 
Russian  General  Repnin  exercised  at  Warsaw.  The  Turkish 
remonstrances  were  eluded  with  excuses  so  shallow  as  to  show  the 
contempt  with  which  the  Russians  must  now  have  learned  to  regard 
their  Ottoman  neighbors,  both  in  diplomatic  and  warlike  capacities. 
The  Turkish  Government,  through  their  interpreters,  continued 
from  time  to  time  to  put  the  most  pressing  questions  to  the  ministers 
of  these  courts,  seeking  for  an  explanation  of  the  deeds  of  violence 
which  were  taking  place  in  Poland.  The  Russian  resident  always 
pretended  that  he  heard  nothing  of  such  events,  or  declared  that 
these  were  "  merely  measures  for  the  protection  of  the  freedom  of 
the  republic,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  solemn  engagements." 

Sultan  Mustapha  and  his  Viziers  at  last  felt  that  they  were 
treated  as  dupes  and  fools ;  and  the  indignation  raised  at  Constanti- 
nople against  Russia  was  violent.  This  was  augmented  by  the 
attacks  made  by  the  Russian  troops  on  the  fugitive  Poles  of  the 
independent  party  who  had  taken  refuge  within  the  Turkish 
frontier,  and  who  sallying  thence  carried  on  a  desultory  warfare 
against  their  enemies,  which  the  Russians  retaliated  at  every  oppor- 
tunity, without  heeding  whether  they  overtook  the  Polish  bands 
beyond  or  within  the  Ottoman  dominions.  At  last  the  Russian  gen- 
eral Weissman  followed  a  body  of  the  confederated  Poles  into  the 
town  of  Balta,  on  the  confines  of  Bessarabia,  which  belonged  to  the 
Sultan's  vassal,  tlie  Tartar  Khan  of  the  Crimea.  The  Russians  be- 
sieged the  town,  took  it  by  storm,  plundered,  and  laid  it  in  ashes. 
Turkey  had  received  proofs  of  Russian  hostility  in  other  regions. 
There  had  been  revolts  in  Montenegro  and  in  Georgia,  and  there 
had  been  troubles  in  the  Crimea,  all  of  which  were  aggravated,  if 


322  TURKEY 

1768-1769 

not  created,  by  Russian  agency.  The  Divan  resolved,  on  October 
4.  1768.  that  Russia  had  broken  the  peace  between  the  two 
empires,  and  that  a  war  against  her  would  be  just  and  holy.  But  it 
was  determined  that  the  Grand  Vizier  should  have  a  final  interview 
with  Obresskov,  the  Russian  minister  at  Constantinople,  and 
inform  him  that  peace  might  be  preserved,  but  solely  on  condition 
that  Russia  should  bind  herself  under  the  guarantee  of  her  four 
allies.  Denmark,  Prussia,  England,  and  Sweden,  to  abstain  from 
all  future  interference  with  elections  to  the  crown  of  Poland,  or  in 
the  religious  differences  in  that  kingdom ;  that  she  should  withdraw 
her  troops  from  Poland,  and  no  longer  hinder  the  Poles  from  en- 
joying full  liberty  and  independence.  Obresskov  was  summoned  to 
an  audience  by  the  Grand  Vizier,  who  interrupted  the  compli- 
mentary speeches  of  the  Russian  diplomatist  by  showing  him  a 
paper,  by  which  Obresskov  had  pledged  himself  on  behalf  of  the 
empress,  four  years  previously,  that  the  Russian  army  of  observa- 
tion in  Poland  should  be  reduced  to  7000  men,  whereas  it  had 
been  augmented  to  30,000.  Obresskov  replied  that  this  last  num- 
ber was  exaggerated,  but  owned  that  there  were  28,000  Russian 
soldiers  in  Poland. 

"  Traitor,  perjurer!  "  cried  the  Vizier.  "  Hast  thou  not  owned 
thy  faithlessness  ?  Dost  thou  not  blush  before  God  and  man  for  the 
atrocities  which  thy  countrymen  are  committing  in  a  land  which  is 
not  theirs?  Are  not  the  cannons,  which  have  overthrown  a  palace 
of  the  Khan  of  the  Tartars,  Russian  cannons?  '" 

The  Vizier  required  him  to  sign  instantly  a  paper  containing 
the  pledge  on  which  the  Divan  had  determined.  Obresskov  replied 
tliat  he  had  not  sufficient  authority  for  such  an  act.  The  declaration 
of  war  was  then  pronounced,  and  the  Russian  minister  was  sent  to 
the  prison  of  the  Seven  Towers. 

The  general  feeling  of  Europe  was  favorable  to  the  empress. 
England  in  particular,  though  she  offered  her  mediation  to  prevent 
the  Turkish  war,  was  at  this  period  and  for  many  years  afterward 
desirous  of  seeing  the  power  of  Russia  augmented,  and  of  uniting 
her  witlj  Prussia,  Denmark.  Sweden,  Holland,  and  England  her- 
self in  a  great  northern  alliance  in  opposition  to  the  combination 
of  France  and  Spain  under  the  house  of  Bourbon.  This  design 
had  l)cen  formed  by  Lord  Chatham  (then  Mr.  Pitt)  during  the 
Seven  Years'  War;  and  it  continued  to  be  a  favorite  project  of  Eng- 
lish statesmen.      The  French  minister  Choiseul  naturallv  reirarded 


CATHERINEII  323 

1768-1769 

Russia  with  very  different  feelings.  But  that  great  statesman  also 
discerned  how  necessary  it  was  to  watch  jealously  the  growth  of 
the  Muscovite  power,  not  only  for  the  sake  of  French  interests,  but 
for  the  sake  of  the  general  commonweal  of  Europe. 

However  just  their  cause,  the  Turks  began  the  war  too  soon. 
When  Sultan  Mustapha  issued  his  declaration  of  hostilities  against 
Russia  in  the  autumn  of  1768,  his  anger  had  got  the  mastery  over 
his  judgment.  He  should  have  endured  the  affronts  offered  to  him 
a  little  longer,  and  not  taken  up  arms  before  the  summer  of  the 
following  year.  He  might  then  have  had  the  full  force  of  his 
empire  in  readiness  to  make  good  his  threats.  But  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  bring  his  Asiatic  troops  together  during  the  winter,  and  the 
opening  of  the  campaign  on  the  Dniester  and  Danube  was  thus 
delayed  till  the  spring  of  1769,  a  delay  which  enabled  the  Russians 
to  make  ample  preparations  for  assailing  Turkey  on  almost  every 
part  of  her  northern  frontier,  both  in  Europe  and  Asia.  Neither 
were  the  Turkish  fortresses  in  a  proper  state  of  repair,  nor  suf- 
ficiently stored  when  the  war  was  proclaimed  at  Constantinople. 
The  Ottoman  Government  endeavored  to  make  good  these  defects 
during  the  winter ;  but  the  spring  found  the  Turkish  equipments  still 
far  from  a  due  state  of  efficiency. 

One  bold  leader  on  the  side  of  the  Moslems,  and  almost  the 
only  one  who  displayed  any  warlike  abilities  in  support  of  the 
Crescent  during  the  first  years  of  this  disastrous  war,  made  a  vigor- 
ous onslaught  on  the  southern  provinces  of  Catherine's  empire 
long  before  the  other  generals  on  either  side  thought  it  possible  to 
bring  troops  into  the  field.  This  was  the  Tartar  Khan  of  the 
Crimea,  Krim  Ghirai.  Before  the  end  of  January.  1769,  the  Tartar 
chief  collected  at  the  ruins  of  Balta,  which  the  Russians  had  de- 
stroyed in  the  preceding  summer,  100,000  cavalry.  With  this  vast 
force  of  hardy  marauders  Krim  Ghirai  crossed  the  River  Boug,  and 
then  sent  one  detachment  toward  the  Doneck  and  another  toward 
Orel,  wliile  the  main  body  under  his  own  command  swept  over  the 
Russian  province  of  New  Servia.  For  fourteen  days  Krim  Ghirai 
rode  at  his  will  through  Southern  Russia,  with  drums  beating  and 
colors  flying,  while  his  wild  horsemen  swept  the  land  with  an  ever- 
widening  torrent  of  devastation. 

Krim  Ghirai  died  within  a  month  after  his  return  from  this 
expedition  against  Russia.  The  Porte  appointed  as  the  Khan's 
successor  Devlct  Gliirai.  a  prince  without  spirit  or  capacity.     These 


324  TURKEY 

1769 

were  deficiencies  in  which  he  too  closely  resembled  the  Grand  Vizier 
and  the  other  leaders  of  the  Sultan's  forces.  Meanwhile,  the  Em- 
press Catlierine  and  her  generals  had  been  preparing  for  the  war 
with  their  characteristic  energy.  One  Russian  army,  65,000  strong, 
was  collected  in  Podolia,  under  the  command  of  Prince  Alexander 
Michailovitch  Galitzin,  who  was  directed  to  besiege  and  capture 
the  city  of  Chotim  and  then  to  occupy  Moldavia.  A  second, 
under  General  Count  Peter  Alexandrevitch  Rumiantsov,  was  to 
protect  the  frontiers  of  Russia  between  the  Dnieper  and  the  Sea  of 
Azov,  and  to  reconstruct  the  fortresses  of  Azov  and  Taganrog, 
which  had  been  razed  in  pursuance  of  the  Treaty  of  Belgrade.  While 
the  Grand  Vizier  was  slowly  moving  with  the  Sultan's  main  army 
from  Constantinople  to  the  Danube,  Galitzin  passed  the  Dniester, 
and  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt  upon  Chotim,  after  which  he  re- 
treated across  the  Dniester.  Indeed,  so  far  as  Galitzin  was  con- 
cerned, the  sarcasm  of  Frederick  II.  of  Prussia  on  the  conduct  of 
the  war  was  well  deserved.  He  called  it  a  triumph  of  the  one- 
eyed  over  the  blind.  But  among  the  other  Russian  commanders 
and  generals  of  division  were  Rumiantsov,  Weissman,  Bauer,  Ka- 
menski,  and,  above  all,  Suvarov,  in  whom  Frederick  himself  would 
have  found  formidable  antagonists. 

The  Turkish  army  crossed  the  Danube  and  advanced  as  far  as 
Khandepe  on  the  Pruth,  between  Chotim  and  Jassy.  The  de- 
ficiency of  provisions  and  the  swarms  of  gnats  and  mosquitos  which 
tormented  the  Turks  in  that  locality  made  the  Grand  Vizier  change 
his  line  of  operations  and  march  toward  Bender.  They  halted 
at  Jassipede  (June  9,  1769),  where  they  found  the  supplies  of 
food  equally  scarce,  and  the  gnats  and  mosquitos  equally  abun- 
dant as  at  Khandepe.  Meanwhile,  Galitzin  had  reorganized  his 
army  and  received  large  reinforcements  in  Podolia.  The  wretched 
government  of  Poland  had  been  compelled  by  the  Russians 
to  declare  war  against  Turkey,  and  Sultan  Mustapha  and  his 
Mufti  issued  a  fetwali  by  which  the  Turkish  troops  were  directed 
to  attack  Poland  and  treat  it  as  a  hostile  country.  A  series 
of  operations  and  skirmishes  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chotim  fol- 
lowed, in  which  Prince  Galitzin  and  the  Grand  Vizier  rivaled  each 
other  in  imbecility.  At  last  the  numerous  complaints  which  the 
Sultan  received  against  his  son-in-law  made  him  recall  Emin 
Moliammed.  who  was  lieheaded  at  Adrianople  in  August.  Ali 
Moldowandji.  who  liad  distinguished  himself  in  some  engagements 


CATHERINEII  325 

1769 

near  Chotim,  succeeded  Emin  Mohammed  in  the  Grand  Vizierate. 
On  receiving  the  chief  command  of  the  Ottoman  forces  All  made 
several  bold  attacks  on  the  Russians  near  Chotim  and  endeavored 
to  penetrate  into  Poland.  Ultimately  the  Turks  were  unsuccessful, 
and  Chotim  surrendered  on  September  i8,  1769.  The  Turkish 
army  was  now  utterly  disorganized  and  hurried  back  to  the  left 
bank  of  the  Danube,  recrossing  that  river  at  Isakdji  by  the  same 
bridge  of  boats  that  had  been  constructed  for  their  passage  at 
the  beginning  of  the  campaign.  The  empress  had  now  recalled 
Galitzin  and  given  the  chief  command  to  Rumiantsov.  Under  that 
bold  and  able  chief  the  Russians  speedily  overran  Moldavia,  defeat- 
ing the  Turks  at  Galatz  and  at  Jassy.  Rumiantsov  entered  the 
capital  of  the  principality  and  received  there,  in  the  name  of  the 
Empress  Catherine,  the  homage  of  the  Moldavian  Boyards.  The 
Russian  influence  speedily  extended  to  Wallachia,  and  the  Wal- 
lachian  Boyards  at  Bucharest  solemnly  placed  the  insignia  of  gov- 
ernment in  the  hands  of  Russian  commissioners,  took  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  the  Empress  Catherine,  and  sent  a  deputation  to  St. 
Petersburg  to  protest  their  loyalty  and  implore  her  imperial  pro- 
tection. 

In  Trans-Caucasia  and  Armenia  the  Prussian  generals  Todleben 
and  Medem  had  been  uniformly  successful,  and  had  received  in  the 
empress's  name  homage  and  oaths  of  allegiance  from  great  numbers 
of  the  inhabitants.  But  Catherine  had  resolved  on  carrying  out  her 
project  of  conquering  Turkey  by  means  of  its  own  Christian  popu- 
lation on  a  bolder  and  grander  scale  in  another  part  of  the  Ottoman 
dominions.  The  designs  of  Peter  the  Great  and  jMarshal  Miin- 
nich  to  arouse  the  Greeks  against  their  Turkish  master  had  never 
been  forgotten  at  St,  Petersburg,  and  Catherine  now  revived  them 
with  enthusiasm.  The  aged  Marshal  Miinnich  (who  during 
the  reign  of  the  Empress  Elizabeth  had  been  banished  to  Si- 
beria) was  at  Catherine's  court,  and  eagerly  encouraged  her 
to  renew  what  had  been  termed  his  "  Oriental  Project."  Rus- 
sian emissaries  had  long  been  actively  employed  in  the  Morea 
and  other  parts  of  Southern  Turkey  in  Europe,  and  the  empress 
received  numerous  assurances  of  the  devotion  of  the  Greeks  to  the 
crown,  and  of  their  eagerness  to  rise  against  their  Mohammedan 
oppressors.  The  empress  and  her  favorites,  the  Orlovs,  resolved 
not  to  wait  till  their  land  armies  had  effected  the  perilous  and  doubt- 
ful march  from  the  Dniester  to  the  vicinity  of  Greece,  but  to  send  a 


326  TURKEY 

1769-1770 

Russian  fleet  with  troops  into  the  Mediterranean,  and  thus  assail  the 
Sultan  in  the  very  heart  of  his  power  at  the  same  time  that  he  was 
hard  pressed  on  the  Danube,  in  the  Crimea,  and  in  upper  Asia.  The 
state  of  Egypt,  where  Ali  Beg  had  made  himself  virtual  sovereign, 
and  had  discarded  even  the  appearance  of  allegiance  to  the  Porte, 
furnished  an  additional  motive  for  the  expedition.  It  was  thought 
that  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Syria  might  be  rent  from  the  house  of 
Othman  in  a  single  summer;  and  Constantinople  itself  was  sup- 
posed not  to  be  safe,  if  a  sudden  and  bold  attack  were  to  be  made 
through  the  ill-fortified  channel  of  the  Dardanelles  and  the  Sea  of 
Alarmora.  Toward  the  end  of  the  summer  of  1769  a  Russian  fleet 
of  twelve  ships  of  the  line,  twelve  frigates,  and  a  large  number  of 
transports  carrying  troops  left  the  port  of  Cronstadt  for  the  Medi- 
terranean. Count  Alexis  Orlov  had  the  chief  command  of  the 
expedition,  and  was  nominated  by  Catherine  generalissimo  of  the 
Russian  armies  and  high  admiral  of  the  Russian  fleets  in  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea.  Admiral  Spiridov  commanded  the  fleet  under 
Orlov,  but  the  real  leaders  in  all  the  naval  operations  were  Admiral 
Elphinstone,  Captain  Gregg,  and  other  English  officers,  some  of 
whom  were  to  be  found  in  almost  every  ship  of  the  fleet. 

At  the  end  of  February,  1770,  the  Russian  fleet  was  off  the 
Morea,  and  Orlov  landed  among  the  Mainotes,  who  rose  fiercely  in 
arms  against  their  Turkish  masters.  The  force  of  Russian  troops 
which  Orlov  disembarked  was  utterly  insufficient  to  maintain  order 
or  discipline  among  those  savage  mountaineers  and  their  country- 
men from  the  rest  of  Greece,  who  also  joined  him  in  large  numbers. 
They  practiced  the  most  revolting  cruelties  upon  all  the  Turks  whom 
they  could  overpower  in  the  open  country  or  less  defensible  towns ; 
Misitra,  the  chief  place  in  Maina,  in  particular,  was  the  scene  of 
fearful  atrocities,  afterward  still  more  fearfully  revenged.  Four 
hundred  Turks  were  slaughtered  there  in  cold  blood,  and  Ottoman 
children,  torn  from  their  mothers'  breasts,  were  carried  up  the  tops 
of  tlie  minarets  and  thence  dashed  to  the  ground.  At  Arkadia  the 
Turkish  garrison  surrendered  to  the  Russian  general,  Dolgoruki, 
on  the  faith  of  articles  of  capitulation  which  guaranteed  their  lives. 
Dolgoruki's  Greek  followers  slew  them  all  and  burned  the  town  to 
the  ground.  In  the  stronger  cities  the  Turks  repelled  all  the  as- 
saults of  Orlov  and  his  Greek  brigands.  He  was  obliged  to  raise 
the  siege  of  ]\Iodon  and  Coron,  and  on  April  8  the  Albanian  troops, 
which    several    of   the    Turkish    bees    had    drawn    together    from 


GATHER  INEII  327 

1770 

beyond  the  isthmus,  encountered  the  main  body  of  the  Russo-Greek 
force  near  Tripohtza.  The  Greeks  thought  themselves  so  sure  of 
victory  that  they  had  brought  women  with  them,  with  sacks  ready  to 
be  loaded  with  the  spoil  of  the  Mussulmans.  But  they  were  utterly 
defeated  and  massacred  without  mercy  in  the  flight.  After  having 
issued  some  vaunting  manifestos,  in  which  he  called  on  the  Greeks 
to  imitate  the  example  of  their  fellow- Christians  of  the  true  church 
in  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  who,  he  said,  had  risen  to  the  number 
of  600,000  in  defense  of  their  faith  and  freedom,  Orlov  reimbarked 
his  troops,  and  the  Turkish  Seraskier,  jMuhinzadi.  who  had  com- 
manded at  Tripolitza,  assumed  the  title  of  "  Fatihi  Mora,"  which 
meant  that  he  had  reconquered  the  Morea. 

At  sea  the  Russian  undertakings  were  more  successful.  On 
July  7,  1770,  Orlov's  fleet  came  in  sight  of  the  Turkish  near 
the  Isle  of  Chios.  Sultan  Mustapha  had  throughout  his  reign 
paid  especial  attention  to  his  navy,  and  tlie  Turkisli  Capudan  Pasha, 
Hosameddin,  had  now  under  his  command  a  force  which  the  Turk- 
ish writers  describe  as  two  corvettes,  fifteen  galleons,  five  xebecques. 
and  eight  galliotes;  it  comprised  one  ship  of  100  guns,  one  of  96, 
four  of  84,  one  of  74,  one  of  70,  and  six  of  60.  The  Russians  had 
eight  ships  of  the  line  and  seven  frigates.  The  Turks  were  worsted 
in  the  action,  which  was  chiefly  memorable  for  the  desperate  bravery 
shown  by  one  of  the  Sultan's  admirals,  named  Hassan  of  Algiers. 
At  the  battle  of  Chios,  while  his  superior  officer  kept  at  a  distance 
from  the  enemy,  Hassan  ran  his  ship  alongside  that  of  the  Russian 
admiral  and  fought  yard-arm  and  yard-arm,  till  both  vessels  caught 
fire  from  the  Russian  hand  grenades  and  blew  u^)  together.  Spiridov 
and  Theodore  Orlov  escaped  in  the  Russian  ship's  boats  before  the 
explosion,  in  which  700  of  their  men  perished.  Hassan  kept  the 
deck  to  the  last,  and,  though  severely  injured,  escaped  with  life  and 
swam  ashore.  The  defeated  Turkish  shi])s  took  refuge  in  the  port 
of  Tchesme,  the  ancient  Cyssus,  wliere  tlie  Roman  fleet  191  b.  c. 
defeated  that  of  King  Antiochus.  Seeing  the  Turkish  ships 
cooped  together  in  this  narrow  bay.  the  English  officers  on  board 
Orlov's  fleet  formed  and  executed  tlie  bold  project  of  attacking  them 
and  burning  them  as  they  lay  on  the  very  night  after  the  battle. 

After  this  signal  triumph  (which  procured  for  Count  Orlov  the 
surname  of  Tschesmeski),  Elphinstone  proposed  that  the  Russian 
fleet  should  instantly  sail  for  the  Dardanelles,  force  the  passage,  and 
then  at  once  proceed  to  bombard  Constantinople.      Such    a    bold 


328  T  U  R  K  E  Y 

1770 

stroke  would  probably  have  been  successful,  as  the  panic  caused  at 
Constantinople  by  the  tidings  from  Tchesme  was  extreme,  and  the 
fortifications  both  of  the  straits  and  the  capital  had  been  neglected. 
But  Orlov  hesitated  and  lost  time,  while  the  Sultan  dispatched  his 
late  Vizier,  Moldowandji  (who  had  been  recalled  from  the  Danube 
and  deprived  of  the  seals),  together  with  Baron  De  Tott,  to 
strengthen  and  defend  the  Dardanelles.  The  proceedings  of  the 
two  officers  were  characteristic.  Moldowandji  began  by  white- 
washing the  old  walls  of  the  forts,  to  make  the  Russians  think  that 
the  works,  which  looked  so  bright  and  clean,  must  be  new  or  newly 
repaired.  The  Frank  engineer  erected  four  batteries,  two  on  the 
European  and  two  on  the  Asiatic  side,  so  as  to  place  any  vessel  that 
endeavored  to  pass  under  a  cross  fire.  An  attempt  which  Orlov  at 
last  made  to  destroy  the  first  Turkish  fort  was  ineffectual,  and  the 
Russian  chief  then  resolved  to  make  himself  master  of  Lemnos,  and 
formed  the  siege  of  the  castle  of  that  island.  After  sixty  days'  in- 
vestment the  Turkish  garrison  offered  to  capitulate ;  and,  according 
to  some  accounts,  the  articles  were  actually  prepared  and  hostages 
given  for  their  execution,  when  a  daring  exploit  of  Hassan  of  Al- 
giers saved  Lemnos  and  drove  Orlov  discomfited  from  his  prey. 
After  the  sea-fight  of  Chios,  Hassan  had  gone  to  Constantinople  to 
be  cured  of  his  wounds.  As  soon  as  he  was  capable  of  exertion  he 
obtained  an  interview  with  the  new  Grand  Vizier,  and  offered  to 
raise  the  siege  of  Lemnos.  He  asked  for  no  troops,  or  ships,  or 
artillery,  but  merely  for  permission  to  collect  volunteers  among  the 
population  of  Constantinople,  for  sabers  and  pistols  to  arm  them 
with,  and  for  some  light  vessels  to  take  them  to  Lemnos.  With  4000 
such  volunteers  he  said  he  would  save  the  island.  Hassan's  reputa- 
tion was  high  among  the  Turks  of  all  ranks,  and  the  fanatic  rabble 
of  the  capital  enrolled  themselves  readily  for  this  service  against 
the  Giaours,  under  so  valiant  a  chief  of  the  true  believers.  The 
French  General  De  Tott  felt  it  his  duty  to  remonstrate  with  the 
Grand  Vizier  against  a  proceeding  which  seemed  to  be  so  insane 
and  which  was  in  such  palpable  contravention  of  all  the  rules  of  war. 
The  Vizier  answered  that  he  also  thought  Hassan's  scheme  absurd, 
but  that  it  was  sure  to  do  good,  as,  if  it  succeeded,  it  would  save 
Lemnos;  or,  if  it  failed,  it  would  rid  Constantinople  of  4000  rogues 
and  ruffians.  The  event  showed  that  the  Algerine  corsair  knew 
how  such  work  was  to  be  done  better  than  the  Vizier  and  the  baron. 
Landing  unperceived  by  the  besiegers  with  his  4000  desperados  on 


CATHERINEII  329 

1770 

the  eastern  side  of  Lemnos,  Hassan,  in  the  gray  of  the  morning  of 
October  lo,  fell  suddenly  upon  Orlov's  lines,  saber  and  pistol  in 
hand,  cut  down  Russian  artillerymen,  soldiers,  and  sailors,  in  the 
trenches,  and  drove  the  rest  in  a  panic  to  their  ships,  in  which  they 
reimbarked  and  abandoned  the  enterprise. 

The  Russian  fleet  accomplished  little  during  the  remainder  of 
the  war,  though  Orlov  took  possession  of  some  of  the  Greek  islands 
and  endeavored  to  maintain  an  insurrection  in  Egypt. 

So  went  the  war  in  the  South ;  but  it  was  on  the  natural  line  of 
contest  between  Russia  and  Turkey  in  the  frontier  lands  of  the 
weaker  of  the  two  empires  that  the  fortune  of  the  combatants  was 
decided.  The  inauspicious  campaign  of  1769  was  followed  there  by 
others  still  more  disastrous  for  the  Ottoman  arms.  Moldavia  was 
the  scene  of  the  early  operations  in  1770,  and  before  the  new  Grand 
Vizier,  Khalil  Pasha,  had  reached  that  province,  the  Russian  Gen- 
eral Rumiantsov  had  defeated  the  advanced  bodies  of  the  Turks  and 
Tartars  and  driven  them  in  confusion  back  upon  the  army  with 
which  the  Vizier  was  advancing.  Khalil  Pasha  came  in  presence 
of  the  enemy  near  Kartal.  The  Vizier  had  led  and  rallied  a  force 
of  about  30,000  effective  troops  ;  with  these  he  entrenched  himself  in 
front  of  the  Russian  position,  while  a  vast  host  of  Tartars  under 
Kaplin  Ghirai,  the  new  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  collected  on  the  other 
side.  Rumiantsov's  troops  were  emboldened  by  repeated  victories ; 
and  he  knew  the  disaffection  and  demoralization  which  previous 
defeats  had  created  among  his  adversaries.  He  led  his  army  in 
three  columns  against  the  Viziers  camp  (August  i,  1770),  stormed 
it  with  inconsiderable  loss,  and  took  possession  of  immense  treasures 
and  stores  with  which  the  Ottomans  had  cumbered  themselves,  and 
of  their  whole  artillery,  amounting  to  160  pieces.  The  number  of 
slain  on  the  Turkish  side  was  small,  in  consequence  of  the  panic 
haste  with  which  they  fled.  The  Vizier  reassembled  a  part  of  his 
host  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Danube,  and  the  Tartar  Khan  un- 
dertook to  provide  for  the  safety  of  the  Turkish  fortresses  in  the 
Dobrusha  and  Bessarabia.  But  Kaplan  Ghirai  was  as  incompetent 
as  his  predecessor  Dewlet  had  been,  and  fortress  after  fortress  fell 
before  the  Russians.  Kilia,  Akerman.  and  Ismail  surrendered 
after  short  sieges ;  but  at  Bender,  in  Bessarabia,  the  Tartar  popula- 
tion resisted  desperately.  The  siege  lasted  two  months,  and  when 
the  final  assault  was  given  (September  27,  1770),  although  the 
Russians,  by  favor  of  a  dark  night  and  the  laxity  of  the  Turkish 


330  TURKEY 


1770 


discipline,  succeeded  in  escalading  the  walls  by  surprise,  the  conflict 
in  the  streets  was  maintained  with  equal  fury  on  both  sides  for  ten 
hours,  and  two-thirds  of  the  population  perished  before  the  Russians 
won  the  town.  Their  own  loss  is  said  to  have  been  so  severe  as 
to  have  drawn  a  caution  from  the  empress  to  Count  Panin  that  it 
was  better  not  to  take  such  a  town  than  to  win  it  at  such  a  price. 
Brailow,  or  Ibrail,  on  the  Danube,  also  made  a  gallant  defense  for 
eio-hteen  days,  and  repulsed  an  assault  of  the  Russians  with  heavy 
loss;  but  there  was  no  hope  of  relief  for  any  of  the  Turkish  gar- 
risons on  the  Dniester  or  the  Danube.  The  Grand  Vizier's  army 
had  disbanded,  and  that  high  commander  was  left  with  about  3000 
half-starved  men  to  receive  tidings  of  the  successive  capture  of  the 
bulwarks  of  the  empire.  At  the  close  of  the  campaign  all  the 
Turkish  fortresses  on  the  Lower  Danube  were  in  the  power  of  the 
Russians,  and  the  line  of  advance  along  the  coast  of  the  Black  Sea 
was  laid  open. 

A  gleam  of  consolation  came  this  year  from  the  Crimea,  where 
an  attempt  of  the  Russians  to  force  the  lines  of  Perekop  was  de- 
feated. But  in  the  following  summer  the  armies  of  the  Giaours 
were  again  directed  upon  the  Crimean  peninsula  with  fatal  efficacy, 
and  that  splendid  conquest  of  Mohammed  II.  was  reft  by  Catherine 
II.  from  the  house  of  Othman.  Another  new  Khan  had  been  ap- 
pointed by  the  Porte,  named  Selim  Ghirai,  and  the  Turkish  council 
of  war  judged  his  presence  in  his  own  country  to  be  more  important 
than  it  would  be  on  the  south  of  the  Danube.  Selim  Ghirai  accord- 
ingly left  the  Grand  Vizier's  camp  and  repaired  to  Bagtcheserai, 
the  Tartar  capital  of  the  Crimea  and  the  ancestral  residence  of  its 
sovereigns.  There  Selim  indulged  in  the  pomps  and  pleasures  of 
viceroyalty  until  he  was  roused  by  the  startling  tidings  that  Prince 
Dolgoruki  was  before  Perekop  with  a  Russian  army  of  30,000 
regular  troops,  and  60,000  Noghai  Tartars,  who  had  taken  sen^ice 
under  the  empress.  Selim  hurried  to  defend  the  isthmus,  but  the 
lines  were  stormed,  a  division  of  the  Tartar  army  beaten  by  Prince 
Prosorofski,  and  the  town  of  Perekop  besieged  and  taken.  While 
the  siege  of  this  place  was  proceeding  Selim  Ghirai  received  intelli- 
gence that  another  Russian  army  10,000  strong  had  attacked  and 
captured  Taman  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  the  straits  of  Kertch,  that 
they  had  entered  the  Crimea  on  its  eastern  point  and  were  in  full 
march  for  Kaffa.  Bewildered  by  these  multiplied  perils,  the  un- 
happy Khan  quitted  an  entrenched  camp  which  he  had  formed  at 


CATHERINEII  331 

1770 

Tuzla  and  hastened  to  Bagtcheserai.  He  entered  his  capital  al- 
most alone,  and  in  such  a  state  of  agitation  and  terror  that  he  was 
incapable  of  giving  any  commands  for  defense.  The  Russians  soon 
appeared  before  the  walls,  and  Selim  then  fled  to  Mount  Karadagh, 
where  several  members  of  his  family  had  collected  with  their  fol- 
lowers and  had  formed  a  fortified  post.  Fearing  to  fall  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies,  the  Khan  abandoned  this  refuge  also  without 
striking  a  blow,  reached  the  coast,  and  embarked  with  a  few  friends 
in  a  vessel  which  conveyed  them  to  Constantinople.  This  igno- 
minious flight  of  the  prince  deprived  the  Tartars  of  the  last  ray  of 
hope.  Many  sought  the  means  of  leaving  their  fatherland,  which 
they  saw  about  to  become  the  dominion  of  the  Giaours,  and  con- 
siderable numbers  set  sail  for  Anatolia.  Others  sought  to  make 
peace  with  the  conquerors.  Dolgoruki  promised  them  independence 
under  the  rule  of  a  prince  of  the  royal  house  of  Ghirai,  and  also 
under  the  protection  of  the  Empress  of  Russia.  They  took  the 
oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  Russian  empress  accordingly,  and  sent 
forty-eight  deputies  of  their  nation  and  two  sons  of  Selim  Ghirai  to 
St.  Petersburg  to  implore  the  imperial  favor  of  Catherine.  While 
waiting  the  gracious  response  of  Catherine  to  her  Crimean  sup- 
pliants Dolgoruki  installed  Shahin  Ghirai  as  Khan.  The  Russian 
general  received  the  surname  of  Crimski  for  this  important  con- 
quest, and  the  Muscovites  rejoiced  that  they  had  now  completed 
their  revenge  for  the  ancient  ignominies  and  oppressions  which  their 
race  had  formerly  endured  under  the  Tartars.  Of  the  three  great 
Tartar  Khanates  which  so  long  afflicted  Russia,  those  of  Kazan  and 
Astrakhan  had  been  overthrown  by  Ivan  the  Terrible.  It  had  been 
reserved  for  Catherine  II.  to  strike  down  the  last  stem  of  the  Tartar 
stock  by  subjugating  the  Khanate  of  the  Crimea. 

The  rapid  progress  of  the  empress's  armies,  the  seemingly  ap- 
proaching ruin  of  tlie  Ottoman  Empire,  and  the  establishment  of 
Russian  authority  in  Bessarabia  and  the  Moldavian  and  W'allachian 
principalities  had  made  even  Austria  desirous  to  interpose  in  behalf 
of  her  ancient  Mohammedan  enemy,  and  to  save  herself  from  the 
perilous  proximity  of  her  ambitious  ^Muscovite  friends.  France, 
England,  and  Prussia  had  offered  to  mediate  between  the  contend- 
ing parties  early  in  the  war,  but  the  Empress  Catherine  had  made 
it  a  point  of  personal  and  national  honc^r  to  allow  no  one  to  interfere 
between  her  and  the  Ottoman  enemy.  Rumiantsov  had  caused  an 
intimation  to  be  conveyed  to  the  Turkish  government  that  peace 


332  TURKEY 

1770-1771 

might  be  obtained  on  much  easier  terms  by  a  direct  apphcation  to 
the  empress  herself  than  would  be  granted  if  the  agency  of  any 
third  parties  was  employed.  But  the  tangled  web  of  diplomacy  was 
still  continued,  Austria,  Prussia,  and  France  being  the  most  active 
in  its  complication. 

Frederick  II.  of  Prussia  and  Joseph  II.  of  Austria  (who  was 
now  associated  with  his  mother,  Maria  Theresa,  in  the  rule  of  that 
empire)  had  determined  at  a  personal  interview  which  took  place 
between  those  two  sovereigns  to  interpose  on  behalf  of  Turkey,  but 
as  they  had  not  agreed  on  any  joint  line  of  action,  their  respective 
representatives  at  Constantinople,  Zegelin  and  Thugut,  made  their 
offers  of  mediation  in  separate  interviews  with  the  Reis  Effendi.  In 
a  conversation  between  that  minister  and  Thugut,  the  Turks 
suddenly  proposed  that  Austria  and  the  Porte  should  enter  into  an 
offensive  and  defensive  alliance  against  Russia.  The  Reis  Effendi 
added,  "  When  the  Russians  are  driven  out  of  Poland,  it  will  de- 
pend entirely  on  the  pleasure  of  the  imperial  court  whether  it  will 
place  a  king  of  its  own  choice  on  the  throne  of  Poland  or  divide  the 
territories  of  that  kingdom  with  the  Porte."  To  this  project  of  Pol- 
ish partition  (of  which  Sultan  Mustapha  himself  was  the  author) 
Thugut  replied  that  it  was  not  a  fit  time  for  the  consideration  of  so 
vast  a  project,  which  could  only  be  effected  by  a  great  effusion  of 
blood,  whereas  the  object  of  his  communications  with  the  Porte  was 
to  put  an  end  to  a  war  which  had  already  been  too  sanguinary. 
At  the  same  time  that  he  was  making  these  offers  to  Austria  the 
Sultan  was  treating  with  France  for  an  active  alliance  against 
Russia.  The  French  court  offered  the  Porte  to  place  at  its  dis- 
posal a  fleet  of  fourteen  or  fifteen  ships  of  war,  in  return  for  which 
certain  annual  subsidies  were  to  be  paid  by  Turkey.  France  prom- 
ised also  to  obtain  similar  assistance  for  the  Sultan  from  Spain. 
This  project,  which  was  called  the  Scheme  of  the  Maritime  Alliance, 
was  not  accepted  by  the  Porte ;  though  the  French  ambassador  was 
requested  and  promised  to  obtain  from  France  ships  of  war, 
stores,  and  artillerymen,  which  were  to  be  purchased  and  hired  at 
a  fixed  rate  of  payment.  The  Austrian  minister,  Thugut,  obtained 
information  of  this  project,  and  sought  to  conclude  an  engagement 
on  the  same  principle  between  Austria  and  the  Porte.  A  convention 
was  actually  signed  (July  6,  1771)  by  which  the  Porte  bound  itself 
to  pay  a  subsidy  of  20,000  purses  (equal  to  11,250,000  florins),  to 
cede  Little  Wallachia  to  Austria,    to    liberate  Austrian  commerce 


CATHERINE     II 

1771-1772 

from  all  taxes,  and  to  guarantee  her  merchant  ships  from  all  attacks 
by  the  Barbaresque  powers.  Austria  in  return  pledged  herself  to 
procure  the  restoration  to  the  Porte  of  all  the  territories  that  Russia 
had  conquered  in  the  war.  An  installment  of  the  money  was  paid 
to  Austria,  and  the  troops  were  put  in  motion  toward  the  frontiers, 
where  they  served  to  overawe  the  Turks  and  Poles  far  more  than 
the  Russians. 

The  English  ambassador  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  copy  of 
the  secret  convention  between  Austria  and  the  Porte,  and  had  com- 
municated it  to  the  courts  of  St.  Petersburg  and  Berlin.  Frederick 
was  desirous  of  a  peace  between  Russia  and  Turkey,  both  on  account 
of  his  plans  against  Poland  and  because  his  annual  payment  to 
Russia,  by  virtue  of  the  treaty  of  1766  (which  bound  him  to  supply 
certain  sums  in  lieu  of  troops  to  Russia  in  a  Turkish  war),  began 
to  be  burdensome.  He  saw  in  this  secret  treaty  between  Austria 
and  the  Sultan  an  engine  for  moving  Russia  to  make  peace  with  the 
Porte.  The  Empress  Catherine,  on  the  other  hand,  was  more  and 
more  anxious  for  the  Prussian  money.  But  before  January,  1772, 
though  no  progress  had  been  made  toward  a  Turkish  peace,  the 
common  avidit}^  of  Russia  and  Prussia  for  the  dismemberment  of 
Poland  had  drawn  those  powers  closer  together;  and  a  secret  con- 
vention had  been  concluded,  by  which,  in  return  for  a  promise  of 
part  of  the  Polish  territory,  Frederick  bound  himself  to  take  arms 
against  Austria  if  Russia  should  be  attacked  by  that  power.  But 
the  same  guilty  bribe  was  now  operating  on  the  court  of  Vienna. 
Austria  joined  the  crowned  conspiracy  against  Poland,  and  totally 
changed  her  position  toward  the  Ottoman  court.  She  did  not  offer 
to  return  the  Turkish  money  which  she  had  received  in  part  payment 
of  her  promised  cooperation  against  Russia,  but  her  ambassador 
was  instructed  to  memorialize  the  Porte  in  concert  with  the  Prussian 
minister,  and  to  urge  the  necessity  of  convoking  a  congress  for 
settling  terms  of  peace.  Catherine,  by  arrangement  with  her  con- 
federate spoliators  of  Poland,  now  abated  somewhat  of  her  haughty 
pretensions  to  sole  action,  and  declared  tliat  she  was  ready  to  accept 
the  good  offices  of  the  imperial  court.  i\n  armistice  by  sea  and  land 
between  the  Turkish  and  Russian  forces  was  agreed  on,  and  during 
the  remainder  of  the  year  1772  negotiations  were  carried  on  at 
Fokschani  and  Bucharest.  They  were  prolonged  into  the  following 
spring,  when  they  were  broken  off  and  hostile  operations  resumed. 

The  breathing-time  which  these  negotiations  procured  for  the 


334  TURKEY 

1772-1778 

Turkish  forces  had  been  well  employed.  At  the  end  of  the  year 
1 77 1  Sultan  Mustapha  had  again  conferred  the  Grand  Vizierate  on 
Muhinzadi  Mohammed  Pasha,  who  had  signalized  himself  in  1770 
by  the  recovery  of  the  Morea,  and  afterward  by  his  energy  when 
transferred  from  the  chief  command  in  Greece  to  the  important 
Danubian  government  of  Widdin.  Muhinzadi  had  been  Grand 
Vizier  before  the  war,  but  he  had  offended  the  Sultan  by  advising 
him  not  to  commence  hostilities  against  Russia  until  his  preparations 
for  war  were  more  complete.  For  this  sound  counsel  Muhinzadi 
had  been  displaced  from  his  high  office,  but  the  bitter  experience  of 
three  campaigns  taught  the  Sultan  how  unwise  had  been  his  haste 
both  in  attacking  the  empress  and  in  degrading  his  Vizier.  In  the 
inferior  posts  of  Seraskier  of  the  Morea  and  Seraskier  of  Widdin, 
Muhinzadi  had  made  an  honorable  exception  to  the  general  incom- 
petency of  the  Turkish  commanders ;  and  the  Sultan  turned  to  him 
as  the  man  in  his  dominions  best  fitted,  both  by  his  abilities  in  the 
field  and  by  his  sagacity  in  council,  to  bring  the  calamitous  war  to  an 
end,  or  to  maintain  it  with  better  fortune  for  the  empire.  Muhinzadi 
had  striven  hard  to  obtain  a  pacification  at  the  Fokschani  and  Bucha- 
rest congress ;  but  he  had  also  throughout  the  fifteen  months  of 
negotiations  neglected  no  available  means  for  restoring  the  spirit 
of  the  Ottoman  troops  and  for  barring  the  further  advance  of  the 
Russians  toward  Constantinople.  He  punished  all  acts  of  brigan- 
dage with  unrelenting  severity,  and  beheaded  a  number  of  officers 
who  had  set  the  example  of  cowardice  in  presence  of  the  enemy.  He 
reorganized  the  wrecks  of  the  defeated  armies  and  raised  fresh 
troops,  especially  from  among  the  Bosnians  and  the  other  most  war- 
like of  the  Mohammedan  populations  of  the  empire.  He  strength- 
ened the  garrisons  and  stores  of  the  fortresses,  which  the  Turks  yet 
retained  on  the  Danube,  especially  of  Silistria ;  but  he  foresaw  the 
necessity  of  being  prepared  to  defend  the  inner  barrier  of  the  Balkan 
against  the  Russians,  and  with  this  view  he  made  Shumla  the  head- 
quarters of  his  forces. 

In  the  spring  of  1773  hostilities  were  renewed  and  Rumiantsov 
crossed  the  Danube  at  Balia  with  the  principal  Russian  army, 
which  was  commanded  under  him  by  Generals  Stupishin  and  Po- 
temkin.  Osman  Pasha,  the  Seraskier  of  Silistria,  endeavored 
to  prevent  the  passage  of  the  river,  but  the  flank  movement  of 
General  Weissman  protected  the  operation,  and  the  Seraskier's 
troops,  after  fighting  bravely,  were  repulsed  and  driven  into  Silis- 


CATHERINEII  335 

1773 

tria.  The  importance  of  this  post  was  keenly  fek  by  the  Sultan 
as  well  as  by  the  Russian  leaders,  and  Ibrahim  Pasha,  who  had 
commanded  the  Turkish  vanguard  in  a  late  unsuccessful  attack  on 
the  enemy,  received  a  letter  from  Sultan  Mustapha  himself  which 
contained  these  laconic  but  emphatic  orders :  "  If  thy  life  is  dear 
to  thee  thou  wilt  rally  thy  beaten  horsemen  and  fly  to  the  succor 
of  Silistria." 

Rumiantsov  battered  the  town  with  seventy  cannons  and  a 
large  number  of  mortars.  The  walls  were  soon  trenched  and  the 
Russian  columns  advanced  to  storm.  One  hundred  wagon-loads 
of  fascines  had  been  provided  to  fill  up  the  outer  ditches,  and  a 
murderous  conflict  took  place,  the  Russians  charging  with  their 
characteristic  obstinacy  and  the  Ottoman  garrison  resisting  with 
determined  valor.  Rumiantsov  continuously  sent  fresh  troops 
forward,  and  the  assault  was  renewed  again  and  again  for  six 
hours,  when  at  last  the  Turks  gave  way,  the  outer  lines  were  passed, 
and  the  Russians  poured  into  the  suburbs  exulting  at  having  won 
Silistria.  Bvt  here  Osman  Pasha's  troops,  reinforced  by  all  the 
male  population,  rallied  and  fought  with  redoubled  fury.  The 
peculiarity  in  the  sieges  of  Turkish  towns  (which  has  been  so  often 
remarked  by  military  writers),  that  the  chief  resistance  in  them 
begins  at  the  very  crisis  where  all  resistance  in  ordinary  sieges 
terminates,  was  fully  exemplified  at  Silistria  in  1773.  The  Russian 
columns  were  at  last  beaten  back  and  Rumiantsov  abandoned  the 
siege  with  heavy  loss.  This  victory  of  Osman  Pasha,  which  was 
mainly  due  to  his  own  courage  and  to  the  gallantry  of  Essud  Has- 
san Pasha,  the  commandant  of  the  place,  is  the  most  brilliant  ex- 
ploit on  the  Ottoman  side  during  the  campaign  of  1773. 

The  Russian  generalissimo,  Rumiantsov,  irritated  at  his  fail- 
ure at  Silistria,  was  anxious  to  obtain  some  success  on  the  right 
of  the  Danube  before  he  placed  his  troops  in  winter  quarters. 
Accordingly,  he  sent  a  column  under  Prince  Dolgoruki  across  the 
Danube  at  Hirsova  and  ordered  General  Ungern  to  move  from 
Babatagh  and  cooperate  in  an  attack  on  the  Ottoman  forces  which 
were  again  assemloled  at  Karasu.  This  proved  completely  suc- 
cessful and  tlie  greater  part  of  the  Turkish  troops  dispersed  and 
fled  toward  Shumla.  Elated  witli  this  triumph  the  Russian  generals 
separated  their  forces,  and  I'ngern  witli  about  6000  infantry  and 
3000  horse  marched  toward  Varna  in  the  hope  of  carrying  that 
important  place  by  a  sudden  attack,  while  the  rest  of  the  Russians 


336  TURKEY 

1773 

moved  upon  Shtimla.  This  division  captured  the  town  of  Bazard- 
chik  after  a  feeble  resistance,  nearly  all  the  garrison  and  inhabitants 
having  fled.  The  facility  of  their  conquest  did  not  prevent  the 
Russians  from  practicing  the  most  barbarous  atrocities  on  the 
remnant  of  the  population,  which  consisted  almost  entirely  of  feeble 
old  men  and  helpless  women  and  children.  But  these  cruelties  were 
not  long  unpunished. 

When  it  w-as  known  in  the  camp  at  Shumla  that  the  army 
at  Karasu  had  been  routed  and  that  the  enemy  was  marching 
toward  the  Balkan,  the  Grand  Vizier  assembled  a  council  of  war 
and  asked  if  there  was  any  officer  of  spirit  and  resolution  who 
would  undertake  to  rally  the  fugitives  from  Karasu  and  Bazard- 
chik  and  repair  the  calamity  that  had  happened.  The  Reis  Effendi, 
Abdurrisak,  volunteered  for  the  perilous  duty,  and  his  offer  was 
gladly  accepted  by  the  Vizier  and  the  other  members  of  the  coun- 
cil. Accompanied  by  Wassif  Effendi,  the  Turkish  historian,  by 
the  ]\Iufti  of  Philippopolis,  and  by  400  men,  nearly  all  of  whom  w^ere 
his  own  household  retainers,  the  brave  minister  for  foreign  affairs 
set  forward,  and  on  the  road  to  Kozlidje  succeeded  in  reuniting 
the  fragments  of  the  different  Turkish  corps  w^hich  were  scattered 
about  the  neighborhood.  At  Kozlidje  he  attacked  the  Russian 
vanguard  and  beat  it,  and  then  hurrying  forward  he  fell  upon  the 
Russians  in  Bazardchik.  The}^  fled  before  him  with  precipitation, 
thinking  that  the  whole  Ottoman  army  was  upon  them,  and  leaving 
part  of  their  baggage  and  stores  as  trophies  of  -Vbdurrisak's  daring 
exploit. 

]\Iean while  General  Ungern  had  received  a  severe  repulse  at 
Varna.  The  Turkish  commander  in  the  Black  Sea,  Kelledji 
Osman  Pasha,  was  cruising  with  a  small  squadron  near  Varna 
wlicn  the  Russian  army  approached  the  walls.  He  immediately 
landed  his  Kiaya  with  600  marines  to  the  succor  of  the  place.  The 
fortifications  were  weak  and  the  Russians  after  a  short  cannonade 
advanced  to  storm.  But  they  were  dri\en  back  in  disorder  from 
one  part  which  they  had  endeavored  to  carry  without  having 
fascines  for  tlie  ditches  or  scaling-ladders  for  the  walls,  and  the 
division  which  at  another  part  had  made  good  its  entrance  and 
occupied  the  Christian  quarter  of  the  town  was  attacked  there  in 
turn  and  driven  out  again  by  the  Turks.  Prince  Dolgoruki  with 
part  of  tlie  Russian  force  retired  to  Babatagh ;  the  rest  under  Gen- 
eral Ungern  retreated  upon  Ismail,     The  Russian  loss  at  Varna 


CATHERINEII  337 

1773-1774 

amounted  to  nearly  2000  killed  and  wounded,  and  they  left  behind 
them  100  baggage-wagons  and  ten  cannon.  The  successful  de- 
fense of  Varna  and  the  recovery  of  Bazadchik  were  the  last  two 
events  of  the  campaign  of  1773,  a  campaign  in  which  the  balance 
of  advantages  was  considerably  on  the  side  of  the  Turks. 

This  brought,  however,  inadequate  consolation  to  the  Sultan 
amid  the  general  decline  of  the  fortunes  of  the  empire  since  the 
commencement  of  the  war  and  for  the  disappointment  of  the  hopes 
which  he  had  based  on  his  own  supposed  preeminence  in  state 
policy.  Sick  in  body  as  in  mind,  he  complained  that  he  was  weary 
of  the  mode  in  which  his  Seraskiers  carried  on  war,  and  when  the 
news  of  the  second  defeat  at  Karasu  reached  Constantinople 
Mustapha  exclaimed  that  he  would  repair  to  the  army  in  person. 
His  ministers  represented  to  him  that  such  an  important  step  ought 
not  to  be  taken  without  consulting  the  Divan,  and  the  Ulema  de- 
clared that  the  departure  of  the  sovereign  for  the  army  might  be 
attended  with  evil  consequences  in  the  actual  state  of  circumstances, 
especially  having  regard  to  the  bad  state  of  his  health.  On  this  the 
Sultan  deferred  his  journey  to  the  camp  until  the  restoration  of 
his  health,  a  time  that  never  came.  The  hand  of  death  was  already 
upon  him,  and  on  December  25,  1773,  after  many  weeks  of  severe 
suffering.  Sultan  Mustapha  III.  expired. 

He  was  succeeded  by  his  brother  Abdul  Hamid,  who  had  been 
shut  up  in  the  Serail  for  forty-three  years  till  called  from  the  dreary 
monotony  of  a  royal  prison  to  the  cares  and  fears  of  a  royal  throne. 
He  made  few  alterations  in  tlie  government  and  had  the  good 
sense  to  appreciate  the  merits  of  his  Vizier,  ]Muhinzadi,  and  of 
his  Capudan  Pasha,  Hassan  of  Algiers.  Above  all  he  was  sin- 
cerely desirous  of  peace,  as  were  his  ministers,  his  generals,  and 
every  class  of  men  in  his  empire,  except  the  Ulema,  wlio  raised 
theological  objections  to  the  Sultan  as  Caliph  abandoning  his  sover- 
eignty over  the  Tartars,  and  against  the  cession  of  the  Ottoman 
fortress  of  Kertch  and  \'enikale  to  the  Russian  Giaours.  But  the 
new  campaign  was  soon  marked  by  such  reverses  and  perils  as 
silenced  these  orthodox  demurrers,  and  the  dignitaries  of  the  sword 
who  longed  for  peace  prevailed  over  the  dignitaries  of  the  law  who 
demanded  warfare. 

On  April  14  the  Grand  Vizier  displayed  the  horsetails  with 
great  pomp  in  front  of  his  camp  at  Shumla.  A  hymn  on  tlie 
birth  of  the  Prophet  was  recited,  and  a  grand  council   was  held 


3S8  TURKEY 

1774 

at  which  it  was  resolved  to  take  the  offensive  and  drive  the  Russians 
from  Hirsova.  But  the  Russian  general  at  that  place  was  Suvarov, 
and  instead  of  waiting  to  be  attacked  he  advanced  toward  the 
Turks,  formed  a  junction  with  the  division  of  General  Kamenski, 
and  brought  the  Turkish  army,  25,000  strong,  to  action  at  Kozlidje. 
He  completely  defeated  them,  captured  their  camp,  baggage,  and 
military  stores,  and  twenty-nine  cannon.  The  defeated  army  dis- 
persed over  the  country,  and  when  the  Generals  Kamenski  and 
Milarodovitch  advanced,  after  the  battle,  upon  Shumla  the  Grand 
Vizier  found  that  he  had  but  8000  troops  under  him  to  defend  that 
extensive  position.  Even  among  these  a  faction-fight  broke  out, 
and  detachments  of  the  Russians  moved  southward  of  Shumla 
to  the  very  gorges  of  the  Balkan.  In  this  emergency  the  Grand 
Vizier  sent  an  officer  to  the  Russian  camp,  where  the  generalissimo, 
Count  Rumiantsov,  now  commanded  in  person,  to  request  an  ar- 
mistice. This  was  refused,  but  the  Vizier  was  invited  to  send  pleni- 
potentiaries to  treat  for  peace.  After  a  brief  delay,  during  which 
Muhinzadi  obtained  the  sanction  of  the  Sultan,  the  plenipoten- 
tiaries were  dispatched  to  treat  with  Prince  Repnin,  on  behalf  of 
Russia,  and  the  first  conference  took  place  on  July  6  at  Kainardji. 
The  negotiations  were  carried  on  with  military  celerity,  for 
both  sides  were  sincerely  anxious  for  a  termination  of  the  war. 
Nothwithstanding  the  conquests  and  glory  which  Russia  had 
achieved  she  was  suffering  almost  more  severely  than  her  beaten 
enemy.  Her  losses  in  battle  had  been  heavy,  and  as  is  customary 
with  Russian  armies,  the  number  of  the  soldiers  that  had  perished 
by  disease  and  privation  far  exceeded  the  amount  of  the  killed  and 
wounded.  At  home  many  of  her  provinces  were  ravaged  by  the 
plague.  A  district  near  Astrakhan  had  been  left  almost  desolate 
by  the  migration  of  a  horde  of  400,000  Calmucks  who,  irritated 
by  the  oppressive  interference  of  the  Russian  Government  with 
their  free  customs,  left  the  territories  of  the  empress  in  1771  and 
retired  within  the  frontiers  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  Still  more 
formidable  to  the  power  of  Catherine  was  the  civil  war  raised 
against  her  by  the  remarkable  impostor  Pugatchev  who,  during 
1773  and  the  greater  part  of  1774,  spread  desolation  throughout 
southern  Russia.  If  in  addition  to  all  this  it  is  remembered  that 
the  first  great  treaty  for  the  partition  of  Poland  was  made  in  1773, 
and  that  there  was  deep  need  of  Russian  troops  to  coerce  the  anar- 
chical but  high-spirited  population  of  that  ill-fated  land,  we  may 


CATHERINE     II  839 

>774 

appreciate  at  its  true  value  the  boasted  magnanimity  of  Russia  in 
exacting  no  harsher  terms  of  peace  from  Turkey  in  1774  than  had 
been  almost  consented  to  in  1772. 

The  Peace  of  Kainardji  consisted  of  twenty-eight  public  arti- 
cles ;  to  these  were  added  two  secret  clauses  by  which  the  Porte 
bound  itself  to  pay  to  Russia  within  three  years  4,000,000  rubles, 
and  the  empress  engaged  that  her  fleet  should  be  withdrawn  from 
the  archipelago  without  delay.  The  twenty-eight  public  articles 
were  the  most  important.  They  established  that  the  Tartars  of 
the  Kuban,  the  Crimea,  and  the  adjacent  regions  between  the 
Rivers  Berda  and  Dnieper,  and  also  of  the  countries  between  the 
Boug  and  the  Dniester  as  far  as  the  frontier  of  Poland,  were  to  be 
politically  an  independent  nation  governed  by  their  own  sovereign 
of  the  race  of  Genghis  Khan,  elected  and  raised  to  the  throne  by 
the  Tartars  themselves.  It  was  expressly  stipulated  that  "  neither 
the  Court  of  Russia  nor  the  Ottoman  shall  interfere  under  any 
pretexts  whatever  with  the  election  of  the  said  Khan,  or  in  the 
domestic,  political,  civil,  and  internal  affairs  of  the  said  state,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  they  shall  acknowdedge  and  consider  the  said 
Tartar  nation  in  its  political  and  civil  state  upon  the  same  footing 
as  other  powers  who  are  governed  by  themselves  and  are  depend- 
ent upon  God  alone." 

But  from  out  of  the  natural  territories  of  this  newdy  organized 
Tartar  nation  Russia  retained  for  herself  the  fortresses  of  Kertch 
and  Yenikale  in  the  Crimea,  with  their  ports  and  districts,  also 
the  city  of  xA.zov  with  its  district,  and  the  Castle  of  Kilburn  at 
the  north  of  the  Dnieper  with  a  district  along  the  left  bank  of 
the  Dnieper.  The  opposite  fortress  of  Ochakov  with  a  similar  dis- 
trict was  to  remain  in  the  possession  of  the  Turks.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Azov,  Kilburn,  Kertch,  Yenikale,  and  the  Kabartas 
Russia  gave  up  all  her  conquests.  The  Porte  confessed  that  it 
received  back  from  her  Aloldavia  and  Wallachia  on  conditions 
which  it  religiously  promised  to  keep — these  were  (in  substance) 
"  the  grant  of  an  amnesty  for  all  offenses  during  the  war,  free  exer- 
cise of  the  Christian  religion,  humane  and  generous  government 
for  the  future,  and  permission  from  the  Porte  that  according  as 
the  circumstances  of  tliese  two  principalities  may  require  the  min- 
isters of  the  imperial  court  of  Russia  resident  at  Constantinople 
may  remonstrate  in  their  favor,  and  a  promise  to  listen  to  them 
with  all  the  attention  which  is  due  to  friendly  and  respected  powers." 


340  TURKEY 

1774 

A  very  important  clause  of  the  treaty  (Art.  VII.)  respecting 
the  Christian  subjects  of  the  Sultan  generally  declared  that  "  The 
Sublime  Porte  promises  to  protect  constantly  the  Christian  religion 
and  its  churches,  and  it  also  allows  the  ministers  of  the  imperial 
court  of  Russia  to  make  upon  all  occasions  representations  as  well 
in  favor  of  the  new  church  at  Constantinople,  of  which  mention 
will  be  made  in  Article  XIV.,  as  on  behalf  of  its  officiating  minis- 
ters, promising  to  take  such  representations  into  due  consideration 
as  being  made  by  a  confidential  functionary  of  a  neighboring  and 
sincerely  friendly  power."  ^ 

The  words  of  section  XIV.,  to  which  section  VII.  referred, 
were :  "  After  the  manner  of  the  other  powers,  permission  is  given 
to  the  High  Court  of  Russia,  in  addition  to  the  chapel  built  in  the 
minister's  residence,  to  erect  in  one  of  the  quarters  of  Galata  in 
the  street  called  Beg  Oglu  a  public  church  in  which  Christians  may 
worship  according  to  the  Greek  ritual,  which  shall  always  be  under 
the  protection  of  the  ministers  of  that  empire  and  secure  from  all 
coercion  and  outrage."  Article  VIII.  stipulated  that  Russian  sub- 
jects should  have  full  liberty  to  visit  the  holy  city  of  Jerusalem 
without  being  subjected  to  capitation  tax  or  other  impost,  and 
that  they  should  be  under  the  strictest  protection  of  the  laws. 
Other  articles  provided  that  merchant  ships  belonging  to  the  two 
contracting  powers  should  have  free  and  unimpeded  navigation 
in  all  the  seas  which  wash  their  shores,  that  merchants  should  have 
a  right  to  such  sojourn  as  their  affairs  required,  "  and,"  as  clause 
XI.  of  the  treaty  expressed  it,  "  for  the  convenience  and  advantage 
of  the  two  empires  there  shall  be  a  free  and  unimpeded  navigation 
for  the  merchant  ships  belonging  to  the  two  contracting  powers 
in  all  the  seas  which  wash  their  shores." 

The  same  clause  gave  expressly  to  Russia  the  right  of  having 
resident  consuls  in  all  parts  of  the  Turkish  Empire  where  it  should 
think  fit  to  appoint  them,  but  no  equivalent  right  was  given  to 
Turkey  to  have  consuls  in  Russia.  The  treaty  merely  said  that 
the  subjects  of  the  Sublime  Porte  were  to  be  permitted  to  carry  on 
commerce  by  sea  and  land  in  Russia  with  all  advantages  of  the 
most  favored  nations. 

Such  in  substance  was  the  Treaty  of  Kainardji,  in  which  one  of 

1  This  is  the  clause  on  which  Prince  Menschikov  in  1853  founded  the  claim 
of  Russia  to  tlie  general  protection  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  Turkish  countries 
who  were  members  of  the  Greek  Church. 


C  A  T  H  E  R  I  N  E     1 1  341 

the  ablest  diplomatists  of  the  age,  Thngut,  the  Austrian  minister, 
saw  not  only  the  preparation  of  the  destruction  of  the  Mohammedan 
Empire  of  the  East,  but  also  the  source  of  evil  and  troubles  without 
end  for  all  the  other  states  of  Europe.  The  German  historian  of 
the  house  of  Othman  considers  that  treat)^  to  have  delivered  up 
the  Ottoman  Empire  to  the  mercy  of  Russia,  and  to  have  marked 
the  commencement  of  the  dissolution  of  that  empire,  at  least  in 
Europe.  He  sees  in  the  articles  of  Kainardji  "  the  germs  of  those 
of  Adrianople." 


Chapter    XXI 

RENEWAL  OF  THE  STRUGGLE  WITH  RUSSIA 

1 774-1 792 

THE  literary  men  of  Western  Europe  and  the  Ulema  of 
Turkey  alike  regarded  the  Treaty  of  Kainardji  as  con- 
summating the  glory  of  Russia  and  the  degradation  of  the 
house  of  Othman.  The  encyclopedists  of  Paris  wrote  felicitations 
to  the  Empress  Catherine  and  to  her  generalissimo,  Count  Rumiant- 
sov,  which  were  echoed  by  all  pretenders  to  enlightened  opinions 
in  other  parts  of  Europe  who  recognized  the  centralization  of  liter- 
ary authority  amid  the  circles  of  the  French  metropolis. 

In  Constantinople  devout  followers  of  Islam  looked  wistfully 
to  Asia  as  their  refuge  from  the  great  infidels,  as  they  termed  the 
Russians,  and  sorrowfully  recalled  the  old  tradition  that  the  city 
abounding  in  faith  is  destined  to  be  taken  by  the  Sons  of  Yellow- 
ness. But  still  many  among  the  Ottomans  were  superior  to  the 
torpor  of  despairing  fatalism.  They  understood  better  both  their 
duty  to  their  empire  and  the  precepts  of  their  Prophet,  who  bade 
his  followers  not  to  lose  heart  at  reverses  in  warfare,  but  to  view 
them  as  visitations  of  Allah  designed  to  prove  true  believers. 

Foremost  among  these  better  spirits  was  the  Capudan  Pasha 
Hassan  of  Algiers,  now  commonly  styled  Gazi  Hassan  for  his 
glorious  conflicts  against  the  Giaours.  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  placed 
almost  unlimited  authority  in  his  hands,  and  Hassan  strove  to  re- 
organize the  military  and  naval  forces  of  Turkey  and  to  prepare 
her  for  the  recurrence  of  the  struggle  against  Russia  which  all 
knew  to  be  inevitable.  He  endeavored  to  discipline  the  troops, 
but  finding  that  all  attempts  to  introduce  improved  weapons  and 
drill,  or  to  restore  subordination  among  the  Janissaries  and  Spahis 
were  fruitless,  he  gave  up  these  schemes,  but  proposed  a  new  order 
of  battle  by  which  more  effect  was  to  be  given  to  the  fury  of  the 
wild  Turkish  onset.  "  He  would  have  divided  an  army  of  100,000 
men  into  ten  different  corps  which  were  to  attack  separately  and 
so  arranged  that  the  retreat  of  the  repulsed  corps  should  not  over- 
whelm and  put  in  disorder  those  which  had  not  attacked.     He 

342 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  343 

1774-1777 

affirmed  that  though  the  artillery  of  a  European  army  would  make 
great  slaughter,  yet  no  army  could  withstand  ten  Turkish  attacks, 
which  are  furious  but  short  if  they  do  not  succeed,  and  the  attack 
of  10,000  is  as  dangerous  as  of  100,000  in  one  body,  for,  the  first 
repulsed,  the  rest  on  whom  they  fell  back  immediately  take  to 
flight." 

This  system  of  attacking  in  detail  was  never  found  practicable, 
and  probably  the  Capudan  Pasha  in  proposing  it  was  judging  more 
from  his  experience  of  the  capacities  of  squadrons  of  ships  than 
from  any  sound  knowledge  of  the  possible  evolutions  of  troops  in 
face  of  an  enemy.  The  navy  was  a  force  which  Hassan  understood 
far  better,  and  his  efforts  to  improve  the  Turkish  marine  were 
spirited  and  judicious,  though  some  of  his  practical  measures 
showed  the  true  ruthless  severity  of  the  old  Algerine  sea-rover. 
Hassan  possessed  little  science  himself,  but  he  respected  it  in  others, 
and  his  great  natural  abilities  and  strong  common  sense  taught 
him  how  to  make  use  of  European  skill  and  of  the  most  serviceable 
qualities  which  the  various  seafaring  populations  of  the  Sultan's 
dominions  were  known  to  possess.  The  repairs  and  improvements 
which  he  sought  to  effect  in  the  Turkish  navy  extended  to  the 
construction  of  the  vessels,  the  education  of  the  officers,  and  the 
supply  of  seamen.  Aided  by  an  English  shipbuilder  Hassan  en- 
tirely altered  the  cumbrous  rigging  of  the  Turkish  ships  and 
equipped  them  after  the  English  system.  He  lowered  their  high 
and  unwieldly  sterns,  and  he  gave  them  regular  tiers  of  guns.  He 
collected  all  the  good  sailors  that  he  could  engage  from  Algiers 
and  the  other  Barbaresque  states,  and  also  from  seaports  on  the 
eastern  coast  of  the  Adriatic,  though  he  was  still  obliged  to  depend 
chiefly  on  Greek  crews  for  the  navigation  of  his  fleets,  as  the  Turks 
refused  to  do  any  duty  on  shipboard  beyond  working  the  guns. 
He  compelled  the  commanders  of  vessels  to  attend  personally  to 
the  good  order  and  efficiency  of  their  ships  and  crews,  and  by  a  still 
more  important  measure  he  endeavored  to  keep  a  sufficient  body  of 
able  seamen  always  ready  at  Constantinople  to  man  the  fleet  in 
case  of  an  emergency.  He  also  founded  a  naval  school  for  the 
scientific  education  of  officers  for  the  fleet.  But  all  these  plans  of 
the  brave  and  sagacious  admiral  were  thwarted  and  ultimately 
nullified  by  the  envy  and  prejudices  of  other  officials  of  the  state. 
Nor  was  Hassan  more  successful  in  an  attempt  which  he  made 
at  a  thorough  reform  of  the  ancient  but  much  aggravated  abuses 


344  TURKEY 

1777-1778 

of  the  Turkish  feudal  system  by  which  Ziamets  and  Timars  were 
given  to  court  favorites  who  trafficked  in  their  sale,  and  the  Porte 
was  deprived  in  time  of  war  of  the  greater  part  of  its  military 
resources. 

The  necessity  of  recovering  for  the  Sultan  some  of  the  prov- 
inces which  during  the  recent  troubles  of  the  state  had  cast  off  all 
allegiance  made  it  impossible  for  Hassan  to  be  a  regular  resident 
in  the  capital,  and  gave  frequent  opportunities  for  his  enemies  to 
countermine  his  policy  during  his  absence.  Against  open  foes  in 
the  field  he  commanded  ably  and  successfully.  He  defeated  the 
forces  of  Sheik  Tahir  in  Syria,  besieged  him  in  Acre,  captured 
that  important  city,  and  reduced  the  district  round  it  to  temporary 
obedience  to  the  Porte. 

In  1778  he  recovered  the  Morea  and  destroyed  or  expelled  the 
rebellious  Albanians,  who  had  been  led  into  that  peninsula  in  1770 
to  fight  against  Orlov  and  the  Greek  insurgents,  and  who  had  after 
the  departure  of  the  Russians  established  themselves  there  in  law- 
less independence,  oppressing,  plundering,  and  slaughtering  both 
the  Greek  and  Turkish  residents  with  ferocious  impartiality. 

After  relieving  the  Peloponnesus  from  this  worst  of  all 
scourges,  the  tyranny  of  a  wild  soldiery  which  had  killed  or  deposed 
its  officers,  which  had  never  known  the  restraint  of  civil  law 
and  had  shaken  off  all  bonds  of  military  discipline.  Hassan  was 
made  governor  of  the  liberated  province  and  exerted  himself  vig- 
orously and  wisely  in  the  restoration  of  social  order  and  the  revival 
of  agriculture  and  commerce.  Subsequently  to  this  he  led  a  large 
force  to  Egypt  against  the  rebellious  ^Mamelukes.  He  had  made 
himself  master  of  Cairo  and  had  effected  much  toward  the  re- 
establishment  of  the  Sultan's  authority  in  that  important  province 
when  he  was  recalled  to  oppose  the  Russians  in  the  fatal  war  of 
1 787-1792,  a  contest  still  more  disastrous  than  that  which  had 
terminated  in  the  Treaty  of  Kainardji. 

The  interval  of  fourteen  years  between  the  two  wars  had  been 
marked  by  measures  on  the  part  of  Russia  as  ambitious  and  as 
inimical  toward  the  Turks  as  any  of  her  acts  during  open  hostili- 
ties. A  temporary  peace  was  necessary  for  Russia  in  1774.  but 
after  Pugatchev's  rebellion  was  quelled  and  the  Russian  grasp  on 
the  provinces  which  she  had  rent  frc^m  Poland  was  firmly  planted 
Catherine  scarcely  sought  to  disg-uise  how  fully  she  was  bent  on 
the   realization   of  the   "  Oriental    Project.''      Her  second   grand- 


STRUGGLE     WITH    RUSSIA  345 

1778-1779 

son  was  born  In  1778.  He  was  named  Constantine.  "  Greek 
women  were  given  him  for  nurses  and  he  sucked  in  with  his  milk 
the  Greek  language,  in  which  he  was  afterward  perfected  by  learned 
Greek  teachers ;  in  short,  his  whole  education  was  such  as  to  fit  him 
for  the  throne  of  Constantinople,  and  nobody  then  doubted  the  em- 
press's design." 

The  annexation  of  the  Crimea  to  the  Russian  dominions  was 
formally  completed  in  the  year  1783,  but  the  plot  for  the  subjec- 
tion of  that  peninsula  had  been  in  progress  from  the  very  date  of 
the  Treaty  of  Kainardji  by  which  Russia  solemnly  bound  herself 
to  treat  the  Crimean  Tartars  as  an  independent  nation  accountable 
to  God  only  for  their  internal  government  and  to  abstain  from  all 
interference  in  the  election  of  their  sovereign  or  in  other  matters 
of  their  civil  policy.  Under  the  old  pretexts  of  friendly  mediation 
and  of  relieving  her  frontier  from  the  dangerous  neighborhood 
of  anarchy,  Russia  soon  made  the  Crimea  a  second  Poland,  except 
that  in  this  case  there  were  no  accomplices  with  whom  she  was 
obliged  to  share  the  spoil.  The  Tartars  had  elected  as  their  Khan 
Devlet  Ghirai,  who  did  not  prove  sufficiently  subservient  to  the  in- 
fluence of  St.  Petersburg.  The  Russians,  therefore,  fomented  dis- 
affection and  revolts  against  him,  and  made  these  troubles  the 
pretext  for  marching  an  army  into  the  peninsula  for  the  ostensible 
purpose  of  restoring  order.  They  sedulously  disclaimed  all  proj- 
ects of  conquest,  but  they  effected  the  abdication  of  Devlet  Ghirai 
and  the  election  in  his  stead  of  Shahin  Ghirai,  who  had  been  a 
hostage  at  St.  Petersburg  and  was  known  to  be  most  unpopular 
with  the  majority  of  his  countrymen.  The  expected  results  soon 
followed.  The  new  Khan,  being  threatened  both  by  his  own  sub- 
jects and  by  the  Turks  (who  justly  regarded  his  election  through 
Russian  intervention  as  a  breach  of  the  late  treaty),  sent  a  deputa- 
tion of  six  of  his  ]\rirzas  to  St.  Petersburg  (1776)  to  implore  the 
empress's  protection.  This  was  graciously  promised,  and  Rumlant- 
sov  was  ordered  to  collect  troops  on  the  Dnieper  to  act,  if  necessary, 
against  the  Turks.  But  the  Sultan  felt  himself  too  weak  to  renew 
the  war.  Some  risings  of  the  Tartars  of  Kuban  against  Russia 
were  sternly  quelled  by  Suvarov,  and  in  1779  a  convention  was 
signed  between  Russia  and  Turkey  by  which  the  stipulations  of  the 
Treaty  of  Kainardji  were  formally  recognized  and  renew^ed  with  the 
addition  of  explanatory  clauses  by  which  the  Sultan  acknowledged 
the  new  Khan  as  lawful  ruler  of  the  Crimea  and  bound  himself  to 


346  TURKEY 

1779-1783 

prompt  performance  of  the  religious  formalities  by  which  it  was 
necessary  for  him  as  Caliph  of  the  orthodox  Mohammedans  to  give 
due  spiritual  sanction  to  the  Tartar  sovereignty. 

Shahin  Ghirai,  the  object  and  unhappy  instrument  of  Russian 
statecraft,  was  not  suffered  long  to  enjoy  even  the  semblance  of 
royalty.  Prince  Potemkin  placed  dexterous  agents  at  the  Tartar 
court  who  persuaded  the  weak  Khan  to  adopt  Russian  usages  and 
costume,  which  only  served  to  offend  the  national  pride  and  religious 
prejudices  of  his  people,  and  to  commit  numerous  costly  absurdities 
which  brought  him  more  and  more  into  public  hatred  and  contempt. 
At  the  same  time  they  secretly  but  sedulously  encouraged  the  dis- 
affection of  his  subjects.  A  revolt  soon  broke  out,  and  the  terrified 
Khan  was  persuaded  by  his  Russian  friends  to  call  in  the  troops 
of  the  empress  to  his  assistance.  Again  the  Russian  soldiers  oc- 
cupied the  Crimea  in  the  guise  of  pacificators,  but  Potemkin  and 
his  imperial  mistress  now  thought  that  they  might  safely  appropri- 
ate the  long-coveted  prize.  The  Tartars  who  opposed  the  Russian 
measures  were  slaughtered  or  expelled  without  mercy,  and  partly 
by  threats,  partly  by  bribes,  Shahin  Ghirai  was  induced  to  resign 
the  crown  of  the  Crimea  and  the  Kuban  to  the  empress,  and  to 
attest  that  the  individuals  of  his  family  in  which  the  throne  was 
hereditary  were  rightly  deposed  forever. 

In  the  empress's  manifestos  respecting  the  annexation  of  the 
Crimea,  the  Kuban,  and  the  adjacent  territories  to  Russia  (which 
were  published  in  April,  1783)  the  same  spirit  of  grim  hypocrisy 
was  maintained  with  which  Europe  was  already  familiarized  by 
the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  empress  and  her  confederates  in  the 
case  of  Poland.  It  was  pretended  that  the  Russian  sovereign  was 
seeking  only  to  confer  benefits  on  the  Tartar  nation.  They  were 
to  be  delivered  by  her  from  the  miseries  of  civil  war  and  internal 
anarchy,  and  were  also  to  be  relieved  from  the  evils  to  which 
their  former  position  between  the  frontiers  of  the  Turkish  and 
Russian  dominions  exposed  them  in  the  event  of  any  collision  of 
those  two  powers.  These  flourishes  of  Russian  liberality  served 
the  sophists  and  declaimers  of  Western  Europe  with  materials  for 
new  panegyrics  on  the  magnanimity  of  the  Empress  Catherine, 
but  the  Tartars  themselves  felt  the  oppression  of  Russian  conquest 
in  all  its  bitter  reality.  Some  of  them  took  up  arms  for  the  inde- 
pendence of  their  country,  and  the  chief  men  of  the  nation  hardly 
sought  to  disguise  their  disaffection  under  Muscovite  rule.   General 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  347 

1783 

Paul  Potemkin  (the  cousin  of  the  prince)  put  the  malcontents  to 
the  edge  of  the  sword  in  a  massacre  in  which  30,ocx)  Tartars  of 
every  age  and  sex  are  said  to  have  perished.  Many  thousands  more 
were  obliged  to  quit  the  country.  Among  the  refugees  from  Russian 
tyranny  were  75,000  Armenian  Christians,  all  of  whom  except 
7000  perished  from  cold,  hunger,  and  fatigue,  as  they  endeavored 
to  cross  the  steppes  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Sea  of  Azov.  Paul 
Potemkin,  for  this  carnage  and  his  conquests,  was  rewarded  by  the 
dignity  of  grand  admiral  of  the  Black  Sea  and  governor  of  the  new 
Russian  province  of  Tauris,  as  the  Crimea  and  the  adjacent  terri- 
tory on  the  mainland  were  now  denominated.  Prince  Potemkin 
(under  whose  directions  the  general  had  acted)  was  signalized 
by  the  title  of  the  Taurian.  The  result  of  these  injuries  and  vio- 
lences was  that  Russia  increased  her  dominion  by  the  possession  of 
all  the  countries  which  had  made  up  the  independent  Tartar  king- 
dom, so  formally  recognized  and  guaranteed  by  herself  in  the 
treaties  of  1774  and  1779.  These  countries  were  not  only  the 
Crimean  peninsula  itself  with  its  admirable  harbors  and  strong 
positions,  but  also  extensive  regions  along  the  north  coast  of  the 
Euxine,  and  in  Asia  the  Island  of  Taman  and  the  important  Kuban 
territory,  where  the  outposts  of  Russian  power  were  now  planted 
ready  for  further  advance  against  either  the  Turkish  or  the  Persian 
dominions  in  Upper  Asia. 

The  progress  of  this  high-handed  robbery  excited  the  greatest 
indignation  at  Constantinople,  nor  did  Western  Europe  observe 
unmoved  such  inordinate  aggrandizement  of  the  Russian  power. 
The  American  Revolution  was  over.  The  house  of  Bourbon  had 
gratified  its  ancient  feelings  of  feud  by  aiding  in  the  humiliation 
which  the  events  of  that  war  inflicted  on  England.  France  for 
a  brief  period  before  her  Revolution  was  at  leisure  to  consider 
the  general  interests  of  the  civilized  world.  Louis  XVL  and 
his  minister,  De  Vergennes,  were  sincerely  desirous  to  check  the 
ambitious  career  of  Catherine  and  to  save  the  Turkish  Empire 
from  dismemberment.  Austria  was  found  to  be  too  much  under 
Russian  influence  to  be  trusted,  and  the  French  court  addressed 
itself  to  that  of  England  on  the  subject  of  the  Crimea,  even 
before  the  definitive  treaty  of  peace  between  France  and  England 
was  formally  signed.  In  June,  1783,  D'Adhemar,  the  repre- 
sentative of  France  at  London,  informed  Fox,  who  was  then  Secre- 
tary of  State  for  Foreign  Affairs,  that  "  The  ]\Iost  Christian  King 


348  TURKEY 

1783 

had  just  received  from  the  cabinet  of  St.  Petersburg  the  official 
notification  that  Russia  had  taken  possession  of  the  Crimea  and  the 
Kuban.  Would  England  look  on  with  indifference  at  such  a  spirit 
of  conquest  ? "  The  English  minister  replied  by  expressing  a 
doubt  of  the  fact  of  definite  possession  of  those  provinces  having 
been  taken  by  Russia ;  he  said  that  Frederick  of  Prussia  would  make 
war  sooner  than  allow  it.  Again  and  again  by  orders  from  his 
court  D'Adhemar  addressed  Fox  on  the  subject.  He  asked : 
"  \\''ould  England  see  with  indifference  a  Russian  fleet  in  the  Bos- 
phorus?  Was  it  wished  that  Constantinople  should  be  given  up 
to  Catherine?  At  any  rate,  could  not  some  limit  be  imposed  on  the 
empress's  career  of  conquest?  Might  not  the  Kuban  be  conceded 
to  her,  so  as  on  that  cession  to  found  a  demand  for  her  resigning 
the  Crimea  ?  If  France  and  England  w^ould  join  in  a  remonstrance 
their  voice  must  be  attended  to  at  St.  Petersburg,  but  acting  singly 
France  would  not  be  heeded."  Fox  coldly  replied  that  it  was  too 
late  to  interfere.  "  The  annexation  of  the  Crimea  was  now  a  fait 
accompli.  Besides,  England  had  engagements  with  the  empress 
which  it  was  inconvenient  to  break."  Thus  repelled  by  the  minister, 
D'Adhemar  sought  and  obtained  an  audience  from  the  King  of 
England.  He  explained  to  George  HI.  the  importance  of  the  Rus- 
sian conquests,  he  pointed  out  the  political  intimacy  that  was  form- 
ing between  Joseph  H.  of  Austria  and  the  Russian  sovereign,  and 
their  evident  intention  to  dismember  Turkey  as  the  greater  part  of 
Poland  had  already  been  seized  and  partitioned.  The  honesty  and 
strong  common  sense  of  George  HI.  were  moved,  and  lie  exclaimed 
with  indignation,  "  If  things  are  to  go  on  in  his  fashion  Europe 
will  soon  be  like  a  wood  where  the  strongest  roljs  tlie  vvealcest  and 
there  will  be  no  security  for  anyone."  But  a  King  of  England  can 
only  act  constitutionally  through  his  ministry  and  parliament.  Fox 
persevered  in  his  indifference  to  Turkey  or  rather  in  lii.s  i)arLiality 
to  Russia,  nor,  indeed,  is  it  probable  that  the  English  people,  ex- 
hausted as  they  were  by  a  long  and  unsuccessful  war,  would  at  that 
period  have  cooperated  willingly  with  France  in  new  hostilities. 
The  irritation  felt  against  that  country  for  the  part  which  she  had 
taken  against  luigland  in  the  American  contest  was  too  bitter,  and 
the  recollection  of  the  combined  fleets  of  the  house  of  Bourbon 
riding  supreme  in  the  Channel  was  far  too  fresh  and  painful. 

The  French  minister  by  a  dispatch  of  August  8.   1783.  sor- 
rowfully assured  his  court  that  there  was  no  hope  of  obtaining 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  349 

1783-1787 

the  cooperation  of  England,  and  that  Mr.  Fox  seemed  bound  to  a 
false  system,  but  M.  d'Adhemar  added  a  prophetic  expression  of 
belief  that  a  nullification  of  the  policy  of  England  in  so  grave  a 
matter  could  not  be  permanent,  and  that  sooner  or  later  England 
would  come  to  an  understanding  with  France  for  the  purpose  of 
arresting  the  progress  of  the  military  and  naval  power  of  Russia 
which  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  East.^ 

The  Prussian  king,  when  applied  to  by  De  Vergennes  to 
act  in  concert  with  France  in  the  Oriental  question,  merely  replied 
by  complaints  against  the  alliance  of  1756  between  the  houses  of 
Hapsburg  and  Bourbon,  and  he  called  on  France  to  renounce  her 
connection  with  Austria  before  slie  asked  Prussia  to  take  part 
with  her.  The  same  disregard  was  shown  at  Vienna  as  at  the  other 
capitals  of  Western  Europe  to  the  proposals  of  France ;  Louis  XVI. 
judged  it  imprudent  to  act  alone.  The  Sultan  was  informed  that 
he  must  look  for  no  aid  from  the  West.  He  knew  too  well  the 
strength  of  his  northern  adversary  and  his  own.  The  Turkish 
preparations  for  the  recovery  of  the  Crimea  were  discontinued,  and 
a  new  treaty  was  signed  on  January  8,  1784,  between  Turkey 
and  Russia,  by  which  it  was  agreed  that  the  new  state  of  things 
in  the  Crimea,  Taman,  and  the  Kuban  should  not  disturb  the 
peace  between  the  two  empires.  The  stipulation  of  the  Treaty  of 
Kainardji,  which  assured  to  the  Porte  the  sovereignty  o\'er  Ochakov 
and  its  territory,  was  formally  renewed,  and  tlie  third  article  of  the 
new  convention  provided  that  whereas  tlie  Ri\-er  Kuban  was  ad- 
mitted as  the  frontier  in  the  Kuban.  Russia  renounced  all  sover- 
eignty over  the  Tartar  nations  beyond  that  river,  that  is  to  say 
between  the  River  Kuban  and  the  Black  Sea. 

The  pacific  words  inserted  in  this  treaty,  like  those  in  the  con- 
vention of  1779,  were  mere  hollow  formalities,  for  the  Porte 
could  not  but  cherisli  resentment  for  tlie  wrongs  to  which  it  seemed 
to  submit,  and  the  aggressive  am!)ition  of  Catherine  was  only  stimu- 
lated by  conquests  and  concessions.  Austria  was  n<>w  entirely  de- 
voted to  the  interests  of  Russia,  and  a  league  was  made  between 
the  two  empires  by  which  each  bound  itself  to  aid  the  otlier.  In 
a  triumphal  progress  which  Catherine  made  in  the  early  part  of 
the  year  1787  to  her  new  Taurian  province  she  was  joined  by  ihe 

'  A  minute  and  inlcrcstin.L;-  narrative  oi  these  negotiations  is  s^ivcn  by  M. 
CapcfiKuc  in  liis  recent  historical  work,  entitled  "Louis  AT/.,  srs  rrLifi.ins 
c'tlouiatiqucs  avcc  I'J'.uropc,  I'lndc,  I'Amcriquc,  ct  I'llinfiir  Ottouwi;."  p]v  105- 
2og. 


360  TURKEY 

1787 

Emperor  Joseph  at  Kherson.  He  accompanied  her  to  the  Crimea, 
and  amid  the  festivities  and  frivoHties  of  their  journey  the  im- 
perial tourists  sometimes  argued  and  sometimes  jested  on  the 
details  of  the  dismemberment  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  on  the 
questions  of  what  was  to  be  done  with  the  Greeks,  and  what  was 
to  become  of  "  those  poor  devils  the  Turks."  Bakchiserai,  the 
ancient  capital  of  the  deposed  Tartar  Khans,  was  the  scene  of  many 
of  these  schemes  and  scoffs,  and  the  downfall  of  the  Sultan  was 
gayly  plotted  at  Sebastopol  also,  as  Catherine's  new  city  by  the 
Gulf  of  Aktiar  was  pompously  designated.  The  empress  and  her 
guests  saw  there  with  pride  and  exultation  a  new  Russian  navy 
riding  in  the  finest  harbors  of  the  Black  Sea.^  Even  then  they 
boasted  of  the  facilities  which  Sebastopol  would  give  for  a  sudden 
and  a  decisive  attack  upon  the  Turkish  capital. 

It  was  the  design  of  Catherine  and  Joseph  to  attack  Turkey 
along  the  whole  line  of  her  northern  frontier  from  the  Adriatic 
to  the  Caucasus.  But,  as  it  was  wished  by  the  empress  to  keep 
up  her  character  for  magnanimity  and  equity  in  the  literary  world 
of  Christendom,  means  were  taken  to  provoke  the  Turks  to  be  the 
first  in  declaring  war.  The  emissaries  of  Russia  excited  disturb- 
ances in  Moldavia,  Wallachia,  Greece  and  other  parts  of  the  Otto- 
man Empire.  Offensive  claims  were  put  forward  on  the  part  of  the 
empress  to  the  province  of  Bessarabia  and  the  towns  of  Achakov 
and  Akerman,  on  the  pretext  that  they  had  formerly  been  governed 
by  the  Khans  of  her  new  Taurida.  These  and  similar  measures 
irritated  more  and  more  the  haughty  spirit  of  the  Osmanlis,  which 
had  already  been  deeply  incensed  at  the  open  insults  put  upon 
Turkey  by  the  Russian  and  Austrian  sovereigns  during  their 
progress  to  the  Crimea,  in  which  their  hostility  to  Turkey  had  been 
so  little  veiled  that  when  Catherine  and  Joseph  passed  through 
the  southern  gate  of  her  new  city  of  Kherson  a  pompous  inscription 
in  the  Greek  language  was  set  up  announcing  that  this  was  the 
way  to  Byzantium. 

Had  Gazi  Hassan  been  at  Constantinople  in  the  summer  of 
1787  it  is  probable  that  the  war  would  have  been  deferred  until 
Turkey  had  prepared  herself  to  sustain  it  with  more  vigor.  His 
policy  was  to  complete  the  subjugation  of  the  rebellious  and  dis- 

-  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  strength  of  the  fleet  was  largely  a  sham.  Potemkin, 
throughout  the  journey,  by  various  devices  cleverly  deceived  Catherine  as  to  the 
amount  of  work  which  had  been  accomplished  in  her  new  possessions. 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  351 

affected  provinces  of  the  Sultan  before  the  renewal  of  the  contest 
with  the  foreign  enemy.  In  furtherance  of  this  plan  he  was  in 
1787  occupied  in  the  recovery  of  Egypt  to  his  sovereign's  power. 
But  partly  through  the  rivalry  with  which  the  Grand  Vizier,  Yusuf, 
and  other  Ottoman  grandees  regarded  Gazi  Hassan,  and  partly 
through  the  popular  indignation  at  Constantinople,  which  the 
studied  insults  and  aggressions  of  Russia  excited,  hostilities  were 
declared  by  the  Sublime  Porte  against  that  country  on  August 
15,  1787;  the  Sultan  unfurled  the  Sacred  Standard  of  the  Prophet, 
proclaimed  a  holy  war,  and  summoned  the  True  Believers  to 
assemble  round  the  banner  of  their  faith. 

The  first  object  of  the  Turks  was  to  recover  the  fortress  of  Kil- 
burn,  which  had  been  ceded  to  the  Russians  by  the  Treaty  of  Kain- 
ardji,  and  to  regain  the  mastery  of  the  important  embouchure  of 
the  Rivers  Boug  and  Dnieper.  For  this  purpose  Gazi  Hassan  was 
recalled  from  Egypt  and  placed  in  command  of  the  Sultan's  land 
and  sea  forces  in  and  near  the  Black  Sea.  On  the  Russian  side 
Prince  Potemkin  (who  chiefly  directed  the  operations  of  the  war) 
sent  Suvarov  to  defend  the  menaced  fortress.  A  division  of  the 
Turkish  army  was  posted  at  Ochakov,  on  the  coast  immediately  oppo- 
site to  Kilburn,  and  Gazi  Hassan's  design  was  to  land  part  of  these 
forces  and  also  the  troops  which  his  fleet  had  conveyed  from  Con- 
stantinople on  the  Kilburn  side  for  the  purpose  of  assailing  the 
fortress  by  land,  while  the  Turkish  fleet  bombarded  it  from  the 
sea.  Suvarov's  troops  were  few  in  number  and  Kilburn  was  then 
ill-fortified,  but  his  generalship  and  daring  not  only  protected  it, 
but  nearly  destroyed  the  assailants.  Suvarov  erected  a  battery  at 
the  very  entrance  of  the  Liman  (as  the  embouchure  of  the  two 
rivers  which  widens  out  after  the  passage  between  Ochakov  and 
Kilburn  is  termed)  and  he  drew  together  a  strong  force  of  Russian 
gunboats  from  Nicolaiev  under  the  Prince  of  Nassau  Siegen. 
Suvarov  permitted  the  Turkish  fleet  to  enter  the  Liman  without 
molestation,  and  he  remained  inactive  till  the  Turks  had  disem- 
barked from  6000  to  7000  men  on  the  Kilburn  shore.  He  then  made 
a  sudden  and  desperate  attack  on  them  with  two  battalions  of  in- 
fantry, which  he  led  on  with  fixed  bayonets,  and  when  he  had 
broken  them  with  tliis  cliarge  he  brought  forward  some  regiments 
of  Cossacks  to  complete  their  rout.  All  the  Turkish  troops  that 
had  been  landed  on  the  Kilburn  shore  were  slain.  At  the  same 
time  the  Russian  battery  at  the  end  of  the  promontory  opened  its 


352  TURKEY 

1787-1788 

lire  upon  the  Turkish  ships  and  the  flotilla  of  the  Nicolaiev  gun- 
hoats  assailed  them  in  the  Liman.  The  greater  part  of  Hassan's 
armament  was  destroyed,  and  thus  at  the  very  commencement 
of  the  war  the  prestige  of  success  (always  important  in  war,  but 
doubly  so  when  the  contest  is  with  Orientals)  was  fixed  on  the  side 
of  the  Russians. 

The  approach  of  the  winter  season  checked  the  progress  of 
hostilities  during  the  remainder  of  1787,  and  in  the  following  year 
a  seasonable  diversion  in  behalf  of  Turkey  was  effected  by  the 
war  which  broke  out  between  Sweden  and  Russia  and  which  de- 
tained the  empress's  best  fleet  and  many  of  her  troops  in  and  near 
the  Baltic.  War  had  not  yet  been  declared  between  Austria  and 
Turkey,  and  the  Emperor  Joseph's  internuncio  at  Constantinople 
was  instructed  to  offer  the  mediation  of  his  sovereign  to  prevent 
the  further  effusion  of  blood.  The  cause  of  this  delay  on  the  part 
of  Joseph  was  the  troubled  state  of  his  dominions  in  the  Nether- 
lands, but  as  soon  as  a  temporary  suspension  of  these  disturbances 
had  been  effected  the  Austrian  sovereign  resumed  his  hostile  prepa- 
rations against  Turkey.  He  even  endeavored  to  obtain  a  treacher- 
ous advantage  by  surprising  the  important  fortress  of  Belgrade 
while  he  still  affected  the  character  of  a  peacemaker.  This  dis- 
creditable enterprise  took  place  on  the  night  of  December  2, 
1787.  But  the  Austrian  troops  that  were  sent  against  the  Turkish 
city  across  the  Danube  and  the  Save  were  delayed  by  natural 
obstacles  and  by  the  want  of  due  concert  between  their  commanders. 
The  morning  found  a  detachment  of  them  under  the  walls  of  Bel- 
grade who  were  exposed  to  certain  destruction,  if  the  Turkish 
garrison  assailed  them.  But  the  Pasha  who  governed  there  pre- 
tended to  be  satisfied  with  the  apologies  of  the  Austrian  officer  in 
command  and  permitted  him  and  his  men  to  withdraw  unmolested. 
This  shameful  violation  of  public  faith  and  the  law  of  nations  on 
the  part  of  Austria  was  met  by  the  Ottomans  with  only  a  dignified 
appeal  to  the  gratitude  of  the  emperor.  They  reminded  him  of 
the  forbearance  of  Turkey  in  the  time  of  Austria's  distress  after  the 
death  of  Charles  VL  and  of  the  scrupulous  honesty  with  which 
the  treaties  between  the  two  empires  had  been  observed  by  suc- 
cessive Sultans.  But  cupidity  and  ambition  had  more  influence 
on  Austria  than  such  feelings  as  gratitude  or  generosity,  as  honesty 
or  honor,  nu'l  on  Febnriry  to.  1788,  Josenh  published  a  declara- 
tion  of   war    ill    which    he    i'.iiiLiited   the   docunier.t   by    which    tiie 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  353 

1788 

Emperor  Charles  VI.  had  commenced  the  war  of  1737,  even 
as  he- had  imitated  the  treachery  of  his  predecessor  in  attacking 
the  possessions  of  a  neighbor  while  still  professing  peace  and 
good  will. 

Joseph  hoped  to  aggrandize  his  dominions  by  the  conquest  and 
annexation  of  not  only  Bosnia  and  Servia,  but  also  of  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia.  He  began  the  war  witli  an  army  of  200.0CO  men 
and  a  train  of  2000  pieces  of  artillery,  but  what  he  effected  in  1788 
with  this  enormous  force  was  more  in  accordance  with  the  scanty 
justice  of  his  cause  than  with  the  magnificence  of  his  preparations. 
It  had  been  arranged  that  a  Russian  army  should  enter  Moldavia 
and  march  thence  to  cooperate  with  the  .\ustrians.  But  the  break- 
ing out  of  the  Swedish  war  obliged  tlie  empress  to  reduce  the  Rus- 
sian corps  that  was  to  act  with  Joseph's  troops  to  a  division  of 
10,000  men  under  General  Soltikov.  The  same  cause  prevented 
the  sailing  of  the  intended  Russian  armament  to  the  archipelago. 
But  the  empress's  fleet  on  the  Black  Sea  was  now  strengthened  and 
well  equipped,  nearly  all  the  ofiicers  being  foreigners.  Russian 
troops  made  vigorous  progress  in  the  regions  between  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  Caspian,  and  the  main  army  Vv'hich  was  collected  near 
the  River  Boug,  under  the  favorite  Prince  Potemkin,  was  numerous 
and  efficient,  though  little  activity  was  shown  in  its  operations  dur- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  year. 

On  the  Turkish  side  Ocliakov  was  strongly  garrisoned,  and 
was  regarded  as  the  bulwark  ui  ti'e  em]iire  iigainsl  Pcjtemkin's 
army.  Gazi  Hassan  commanded  on  the  Black  Sea,  and  the  Grand 
Vizier  assembled  his  forces  in  IViilgaria  to  act  as  necessity  rc(iuired 
either  against  the  Russians,  wlio  were  expected  to  advance  by  their 
old  line  of  invasion  through  ]>cssarabMa  and  AX'aHachia,  or  again.-t 
tlie  Austrians,  who  threatened  Turkey  from  tlie  northwest.  Joseph 
wasted  tlie  early  part  of  tlie  \'e;ir  in  wailing  for  tiie  Russians  and 
in  unsuccessful  intrigues  with  the  Pasha  of  Scutari  ruid  other 
Turkish  C(jmmanders  whose  customary  insubordination  toward 
tlieir  Sultan  was  erroneously  tr.ougiit  convertible  into  traitorous 
cooperation  with  the  enemies  of  their  race  and  faith.  When  at 
length,  the  Austrian  so\-creign.  aslianied  at  the  riijicnle  which  liis 
indecision  had  brought  on  him,  began  to  advance  he  encountered 
an  obstinate  resistance  from  tlie  Mohammedan  ]x:)pulation  of 
Bosnia,  thougli  in  Servia  tiie  Kayas  again  welcomed  the  imperial- 
ists and  formed  armed  bands  that  fought  bravely  against  the  Turks. 


354  TURKEY 

1788 

But  the  Grand  Vizier,  who  found  that  there  was  no  serious  peril 
of  a  Russian  advance  upon  the  Balkan  during  that  year,  moved  his 
whole  force  upon  the  flank  of  the  Austrian  line  of  operations, 
Joseph  retired  with  precipitation.  The  Turks  crossed  the  Danube, 
defeated  an  Austrian  army  under  Wartersleben  at  Mehadia,  laid 
waste  the  Bannat,  and  threatened  to  invade  Hungary.  Joseph  now 
gave  the  command  of  part  of  his  forces  called  the  army  of  Croatia 
to  Marshal  Laudon,  a  veteran  hero  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  who  in- 
stantly assumed  the  offensive,  defeated  the  Turks  opposed  to  him  at 
Dubitza,  and  before  the  close  of  the  campaign  had  advanced  into  the 
heart  of  Bosnia  and  besieged  and  taken  the  town  of  Novi,  Joseph 
himself  had  marched  with  40,000  men  to  relieve  General  Warters- 
leben and  to  protect  Hungary. 

But  during  a  night  march  from  Karansebes  toward  Temesvar 
on  September  20  the  Austrian  army  fell  into  a  causeless  panic 
which  thoroughly  disorganized  the  troops  for  a  time.  This, 
combined  with  the  heavy  losses  from  disease,  made  the  whole  cam- 
paign a  fruitless  one  for  the  Austrians,  while  the  Turks  gained 
some  small  successes.  Altogether  Austria  lost  in  the  operations  of 
this  year  30,000  men  in  killed  and  wounded,  the  greater  part  of 
whom  fell  at  Karansebes  or  in  desultory  skirmishes,  and  40,000 
more,  who  were  swept  away  by  pestilential  disorders. 

On  the  northwestern  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  where  Prince 
Potemkin  commanded,  the  Russians  effected  little  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year,  though  Ochakov  was  invested  as  early  as  August. 
At  length  Potemkin  summoned  the  victor  of  Kilburn  to  urge  on 
the  siege,  and  the  Russian  arms  made  their  customary  progress 
under  Suvarov,  though  he  was  obliged  by  a  wound  to  retire  from 
headquarters  before  the  final  assault  was  given.  This  took  place 
on  December  16,  1788.  Valor,  maddened  to  ferocity,  was  shown 
on  both  sides.  The  Turks  of  Ochakov  had  before  the  siege 
surprised  a  Russian  village  in  the  vicinity  and  mercilessly  slaugh- 
tered all  the  inhabitants.  Potemkin  and  Suvarov  caused  the  Rus- 
sian regiments  that  were  to  assault  the  town  to  be  first  led  through 
this  village  as  it  lay  in  ashes  and  with  its  streets  still  red  with  the 
blood  of  their  fellow-countrymen.  With  their  natural  stubborn 
savage  courage  thus  inflamed  by  the  longing  for  revenge,  the 
Russians  advanced  on  December  16  over  the  frozen  Liman  against 
the  least  fortified  side  of  the  city.  Whole  ranks  were  swept 
away  by  the  fire  of  the  besieged,  but  the  supporting  columns  still 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  355 

1788-1789 

came  forward  unflinchingly  through  musketry  and  grape;  8000 
Russians  fell,  but  the  survivors  bore  down  all  resistance  and  forced 
their  way  into  the  city,  where  for  three  days  they  reveled  in  murder 
and  pillage.  No  mercy  was  shown  to  age  or  sex,  and  out  of  a  popu- 
lation and  garrison  of  40,000  human  beings  only  a  few  hundred 
(chiefly  women  and  children)  escaped,  whom  the  exertions  of  the 
officers  in  the  Russian  service  rescued  from  the  indiscriminate  fury 
of  the  soldiery. 

In  the  March  of  1789  the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier  began  the 
campaign  against  Austria  with  unusual  activity.  He  left  troops 
on  the  lower  Danube  to  observe  the  enemy  in  Wallachia  and  Mol- 
davia, and  crossed  the  river  at  Rustchuk  with  90,000  men,  whom  he 
led  in  person.  He  advanced  rapidly  toward  Hermanstadt  in  Tran- 
sylvania with  the  design  of  pressing  forward  and  carrying  the  war 
into  the  hereditary  provinces  of  the  emperor.  Unfortunately  for 
Turkey,  the  death  of  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  at  this  crisis  caused 
a  change  of  Grand  Viziers,  and  the  able  leader  of  the  Turks  was 
superseded  by  the  Pasha  of  Widdin,  a  man  utterly  deficient  in 
military  abilities.  The  effect  of  this  change  was  the  abandonment 
of  the  late  Vizier's  plans  for  the  campaign,  and  the  Turkish  troops 
were  drawn  back  to  the  south  of  the  Danube. 

Sultan  Selim  HI.,  the  successor  of  Abdul  Hamid,  ascended  the 
Turkish  throne  on  April  7,  1789,  being  then  twenty-seven  years 
old.  He  was  a  young  man  of  considerable  abilities  and  high 
spirit,  and  his  people  gladly  hailed  the  accession  of  a  youthful 
prince,  active  in  person  and  energetic  in  manner,  under  whom 
they  hoped  to  see  an  auspicious  turn  given  to  the  long-declining 
fortunes  of  the  empire.  Selim  had  been  treated  by  his  uncle,  the 
late  Sultan,  with  far  greater  kindness  and  had  been  allowed  much 
more  freedom,  both  bodily  and  mental,  than  the  non-reigning 
princes  of  the  blood-royal  were  usually  permitted  to  enjoy.  One 
of  his  intimate  associates  was  an  Italian  physician  named  Lorenzo, 
and  from  him  and  other  Franks  Selim  eagerly  sought  and  ob- 
tained information  respecting  the  nations  of  Western  Europe,  their 
civil  and  military  institutions,  and  the  causes  of  that  superiority 
which  they  had  now  indisputably  acquired  over  the  Ottomans. 
Selim  even  opened  a  correspondence  with  the  French  king  and  his 
ministers,  Vergennes  and  ^Montmorin,  in  which  he  sought  political 
instruction  from  the  chiefs  of  what  he  was  taught  to  regard  as  the 
foremost  nation  of  the  Franks.     He  felt  keenly  the  abuses  which 


356  TURKEY 

1789 

prevailed  in  his  own  country,  and  it  is  said  that  his  father,  Sultan 
Mustapha  III.,  had  bequeathed  to  him  a  memorial  (diligently 
studied  and  venerated  by  young  Selim)  in  which  the  principal 
events  of  Mustapha's  unhappy  reign  were  reviewed,  the  degeneracy 
of  the  Turkish  nation  discussed,  and  the  great  evils  that  prevailed 
in  the  state  were  pointed  out  with  exhortations  to  their  thorough 
removal.  Thus  trained  and  influenced  Selim  came  to  the  throne 
an  ardent  reformer,  but  the  war  which  he  found  raging  between 
his  empire  and  the  confederate  powders  of  Austria  and  Russia  re- 
quired all  his  attention  in  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  which  opened 
with  the  darkest  scenes  of  calamity  and  defeat. 

The  great  mass  of  the  Austrian  forces  in  1789  w^as  placed 
under  the  able  guidance  of  IMarshal  Laudon.  The  Prince  of  Co- 
burg  commanded  the  corps  which  was  to  cooperate  with  the 
Russians.  Potemkin's  army  after  the  destruction  of  Ochakov  oc- 
cupied the  country  from  the  Dnieper  to  the  delta  of  the  Danube, 
and  Suvarov  (who  had  nov^  recovered  from  his  wound)  was  sent 
into  Moldavia  w^ith  the  Russian  division  which  was  to  assist  the 
Prince  of  Coburg.  Sultan  Selim  had  recalled  Gazi  Hassan  from 
the  command  of  the  fleet  in  the  Black  Sea,  where  he  had  experienced 
several  reverses,  and  the  old  admiral  was  now  placed  at  the  head 
of  the  Turkish  army  which  was  to  act  against  Coburg's  forces. 
Hassan  advanced  upon  the  Austrians  who  were  stationed  at  Fok- 
shani,  at  the  extreme  point  of  Moldavia.  He  would  probably 
have  overwhelmed  them  if  they  had  not  been  succored  by  Suvarov, 
who  marched  his  army  no  less  than  sixty  English  miles  over  a  wild 
mountainous  district  in  thirty-six  hours.  Suvarov  reached  the 
Austrian  position  at  five  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  July  30. 
Instead  of  waiting  for  Hassan's  assault  he  issued  his  order  for 
battle  at  eleven  o'clock  tlie  same  night,  and  at  two  hours  before 
daybreak  the  next  morning  he  led  the  allied  armies  forward  against 
the  Turkish  fortified  camp  in  one  of  those  bold  bayonet  attacks  which 
became  national  and  natural  to  the  Russian  soldiery  under  his 
guidance.  The  Turks  were  utterly  routed  and  all  their  artillery  and 
baggage  taken.  Another  and  a  larger  army  was  collected  by 
Selim's  orders  and  exertions  which  on  September  16  encoun- 
tered Suvarov  with  the  same  result,  though  the  contest  was 
more  obstinate.  This  great  victory  of  the  Russian  general  was 
gained  by  him  near  the  River  Rimnik,  whence  came  the  well-merited 
surname  of  Rimnikski  wliich   was  conferred  on   Suvarov  by  his 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  357 

1789-1790 

empress.  The  excitement  and  alarm  of  the  Turks  were  now  ex- 
treme, and  Selim  in  order  to  appease  the  popular  tumult  at  Constan- 
tinople disgraced  himself  by  putting  to  death  the  gallant,  though 
lately  unsuccessful  veteran,  Gazi  Hassan.  The  Ottoman  forces  in 
Bosnia  and  Servia  experienced  defeats  almost  as  severe  from  the 
imperialists  under  Laudon.  Belgrade  and  Semendria  were  cap- 
tured, and  the  advance  of  the  converging  Russian  and  Austrian 
armies  upon  the  Turkish  capital  seemed  irrestrainable  when  the 
Emperor  Joseph  was  compelled  by  the  disorder  and  revolts  which 
had  broken  out  in  almost  every  part  of  his  dominions  to  check  the 
progress  of  his  forces  in  Turkey,  and  to  employ  them  against  his 
own  subjects.  The  death  of  the  Austrian  sovereign  in  1790  re- 
lieved the  Sultan  from  one  of  the  most  vehement,  though  not  of 
the  most  resolute,  foes  of  the  Ottoman  pow'er."'  The  succeeding 
emperor,  Leopold,  alarmed  at  the  perilous  condition  of  many  of 
his  most  important  provinces  and  menaced  with  war  by  Prussia, 
was  anxious  to  conclude  a  secure  and  honoral^le  peace  with  Tur- 
key, and  after  some  further  operations  on  the  Danube  in  the  course 
of  which  the  Austrians  captured  Orsova,  but  were  defeated  by  the 
Turks  near  Giurgevo,  an  armistice  was  agreed  on  which  was 
eventually  followed  by  a  peace,  though  the  negotiations  were  jm-o- 
tracted  into  the  middle  of  the  year  1791.  The  Treaty  of  Sistova 
(as  this  pacification  was  termed)  was  signed  on  August  4  of 
that  year.  The  emperor  relinquished  all  his  conquests  except 
the  town  of  Old  Orsova  and  a  small  district  in  Croatia  along  the 
left  bank  of  the  River  Unna.  With  these  slight  variations  the  same 
boundary  between  Austria  and  Turkey  was  reconstiiutetl  in  1791 
that  had  been  defined  by  the  Treaty  of  Belgrade  in  1739. 

Russia  was  a  far  more  persevering  and  a  far  liiore  deadly 
enemy  to  tlie  Ottomans.  The  Empress  Catherine  made  peace 
with  Sweden  in  the  August  of  1790,  but  she  long  treated  witli 
haughty  neglect  the  diplomatic  efforts  of  England  and  J'russia  in 
favor  of  the  Turks.  Constantinople  was  tlie  great  prize  v.hicli 
she  sought  to  win  at  any  cost  and  at  all  hazards,  and  she  boasted 
that  slie  would  find  there  a  capital  fur  her  empire  even  11  tiie  West- 
ern powers  were  to  drive  her  from  St.  i'etersburg.  In  general 
this  design  was  veiled   under  the  showy  pretext  of  rescuing  the 

-With  the  death  of  the  lui-iperor  Joseph  er.ds  ihe  cor)pcration  of  A;;<tri.i 
and  Russia  against  tlic  Turks.  Henceforth  the  attilude  of  Austria  is  gener:i!!y 
hostile  to  Russian  aggression. — Ed. 


358  TURKEY 

1790 

Greeks  from  the  Ottoman  yoke  and  reviving  the  classical  glories 
of  the  Hellenic  name.  As  in  the  preceding  war  Russia  now  used 
every  available  method  by  which  she  might  make  the  Greek  popu- 
lation of  the  Turkish  Empire  fight  her  battles  against  the  Sultan. 
Before  hostilities  commenced  in  1787  Catherine  had  sent  mani- 
festos to  all  parts  of  Greece  inviting  the  inhabitants  "  to  take  up 
arms  and  cooperate  with  her  in  expelling  the  enemies  of  Christianity 
from  the  countries  they  had  usurped  and  in  regaining  for  the  Greeks 
their  ancient  liberty  and  independence."  The  Suliotes  and  other 
mountain  tribes  of  northern  Greece  (or  rather  Epirus)  were  leagued 
at  her  instigation  in  active  insurrection  against  the  Turks.  The 
Swedish  war  at  first,  and  afterward  the  menacing  attitude  as- 
sumed by  England  toward  Russia,  detained  in  the  Baltic  the  ships 
which  the  empress  had  destined  for  the  Archipelago  and  the  Pro- 
pontis,  but  a  Greek  squadron  of  twelve  vessels  had  been  equipped 
by  her  orders  in  various  ports  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  the  Hel- 
lenic patriot,  Lambro  Canzani,  sailed  early  in  1790  in  command 
of  this  little  force  against  the  enemies  of  the  empress.  The  Sul- 
tan was  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the  Black  Sea  part  of  the  re- 
maining Turkish  navy  to  oppose  these  active  enemies,  and  he 
sought  and  obtained  also  the  more  effectual  aid  of  a  squadron  from 
Algiers.  The  united  Ottoman  and  Barbaresque  fleet  brought  Lam- 
bro to  action  on  May  18,  and  succeeded  by  the  superiority  of 
their  numbers  and  the  skillful  gunnery  of  the  Algerines  in  de- 
stroying the  whole  of  his  ships.  On  land  the  insurrection  continued, 
and  the  troops  of  the  Pasha  who  attacked  the  Suliotes  (the  cele- 
brated Ali  of  Janina)  met  with  repeated  defeats.  A  general 
deputation  of  the  Greeks  was  sent  in  the  early  part  of  1790  to 
St.  Petersburg  to  implore  the  aid  of  "  the  most  magnanimous  of 
sovereigns,"  and  to  beseech  that  she  would  give  to  the  Greeks  for 
a  sovereign  her  grandson  Constantine.  This  address  was  graciously 
received  by  the  empress,  who  promised  them  the  assistance  which 
they  requested.  They  were  then  conducted  to  the  apartments  of 
her  grandson,  where  they  paid  homage  to  the  Grand  Duke  Con- 
stantine and  saluted  him  as  emperor  of  the  Greeks.  A  plan  for  the 
mih'tary  cooperation  of  the  Greek  insurgents  with  the  expected 
advance  of  the  Russians  upon  Adrianople  was  then  discussed,  and 
the  deputation  was  sent  with  the  Russian  General  Tamaran  to 
Prince  Potemkin's  headquarters  in  Moldavia. 

The  great  military  event  of  the  year  1790  was  the  capture  of 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  359 

1790 

Ismail  by  Suvarov.  This  important  city  is  situated  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Kilia  or  northern  arm  of  the  Danube,  about  forty  miles 
from  the  Black  Sea.  It  was  strongly  garrisoned  by  the  Turks  and 
presented  an  almost  insurmountable  barrier  to  the  advance  of  the 
Russians  through  the  coast  districts  of  Bessarabia  and  Bulgaria. 
Potemkin  besieged  it  in  person  for  several  months  without  success. 
He  then  retired  to  Bender  to  enjoy  his  usual  life  of  more  than 
viceregal  pomp  and  luxury  and  sent  the  hero  of  Kilburn,  Fokshani, 
and  the  Rimnik  to  reduce  the  obstinate  city.  His  laconic  orders 
to  Suvarov  were  "  You  will  take  Ismail  whatever  be  the  cost." 
Suvarov  joined  the  besieging  army  on  December  i6,  and  on  the 
22d  Ismail  was  taken,  but  at  a  cost  of  carnage  and  crime  for 
which  the  hideous  history  of  sieges,  ancient  or  modern,  can  hardly 
furnish  a  parallel. 

At  Ismail  the  army  which  had  been  preparing  to  abandon  the 
siege  in  discouragement  returned  to  its  duty  with  enthusiastic 
ardor  as  soon  as  the  men  saw  Suvarov  among  them.  He  drilled 
the  young  soldiers  in  person  and  taught  them  how  to  use  the  bayonet 
against  the  Turkish  saber.  Abandoning  the  tedious  operations  of 
a  formal  siege,  Suvarov  ordered  a  general  assault  to  be  made  on  the 
Turkish  defenses,  which,  though  not  regularly  breached,  were 
not  insurmountable.  So  far  as  the  loss  of  life  among  his  own 
troops  was  concerned  he  probably  judged  well,  as  the  protraction  of 
the  siege  through  the  winter  would  have  caused  the  death  of  far 
more  men  in  the  Russian  lines  through  cold,  privation,  and  disease 
than  even  the  amount  of  the  thousands  who  fell  in  tlie  storming. 
But  the  slaughter  of  the  brave  defenders  and  of  the  helpless  part 
also  of  the  population  of  Ismail  which  stained  Suvarov's  triumpli 
was  horrible  beyond  the  power  of  description.  The  assault  was 
given  at  night,  and  it  was  not  till  after  sustaining  heavy  loss  and 
frequent  repulses  that  the  Russians  forced  the  walls.  But  the 
fiercest  part  of  the  contest  was  within  the  city  itself;  every  street 
was  a  battlefield,  every  house  was  a  fortress  which  was  defended 
with  all  the  wild  energy  of  despair.  It  was  near  noon  before  the 
Russian  columns,  slaying  and  firing  all  in  tlieir  way,  converged  upon 
the  market-place,  where  a  body  of  Turks  and  Tartars  of  the  garrison 
had  rallied.  The  struggle  raged  there  for  two  hours,  quarter  not 
being  even  asked  till  the  last  of  the  ^loslems  had  perished.  Fresh 
troops  from  the  Russian  camps,  eager  for  their  share  of  booty  and 
bloodshed,  continued  to  pour  into  tlie  devoted  city,  the  remnants  of 


360  TURKEY 

1790-1791 

which  were  given  up  for  three  clays  to  the  hcense  of  the  soldiery.  Ac- 
cording to  Suvarov's  official  report  to  Potemkin  in  the  course  of  four 
days  33,000  Turks  were  either  slain  or  mortally  wounded  and 
10,000  taken  prisoners.  No  reckoning  seems  to  have  been  taken 
of  the  thousands  of  feeble  old  men  and  of  women  and  children  who 
suffered  death  and  worse  than  death  in  the  annihilated  city. 
Suvarov,  while  the  ruins  yet  reeked  before  him,  wrote  a  dispatch 
to  the  empress  in  which  he  announced  in  a  couplet  of  doggerel 
exultation  that  Ismail  was  won. 

Many  of  the  ablest  Turkish  generals  and  officers  perished  at 
Ismail,  and  the  remaining  part  of  the  war  was  a  series  of  uninter- 
rupted calamities  to  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Sultan  Selim  still  found 
the  means  of  sending  forward  fresh  armies,  but  these  dispirited  and 
undisciplined  levies  only  furnished  the  Russian  generals  with  the 
materials  for  further  triumphs.  Kutusov  routed  a  Turkish  army 
near  Babadagh,  in  January,  1791,  and  in  the  following  July  the  host 
of  100,000  men  which  had  been  collected  under  the  Grand  Vizier 
was  scattered  by  40,000  Russians  under  General  Repnin.  The 
death,  however,  of  Potemkin  in  the  October  of  this  year  removed 
the  most  violent  promoter  of  the  war  on  the  Russian  side,  and  the 
remonstrances  of  Prussia  and  England  began  at  last  to  command 
attention  from  Catherine.  William  Pitt  was  now  Prime  Minister 
of  England,  and  he  discerned,  far  more  sagaciously  than  most  of  his 
contemporaries,  the  true  interest  of  England  with  regard  to  Russia 
and  Turkey.  A  triple  alliance  had  been  formed  in  1788  between 
England,  Holland,  and  Prussia,  the  immediate  object  of  which  was 
to  terminate  the  internal  dissensions  of  the  United  Provinces.  But 
the  alliance  was  maintained  after  that  purpose  had  been  effected. 
Tlie  powers  that  were  parties  to  it  had  interfered  at  the  Congress 
of  TliC  Hague  in  1790  in  the  disputes  between  the  Emperor  Joseph 
and  liis  Belgian  subjects;  and  they  also  had  compelled  Denmark  to 
withdraw  tlie  support  which  she  had  given  to  Russia  against  Sweden 
in  1788.  Prussia,  in  her  extreme  jealousy  of  the  power  of  the 
house  of  TIapsl)urg,  had  offered,  when  the  Austro-Turkish  war 
broke  out  in  1788,  to  conclude  a  treaty  of  alliance,  oft'ensive  and 
defensive,  witli  the  Porte ;  and  articles  had  been  prepared  by  which 
the  Prussian  king  v^as  to  guarantee  the  recovery  of  the  Crimea. 
These,  however,  were  never  executed,  but  the  triple  alliance  mediated 
between  Austria  and  the  Porte  in  the  Congress  at  Reichenbach  in 
1790,  the  result  of  which  was  the  peace  between  Austria  and  Turkey. 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA  361 

1791 

signed  at  Sistova  in  1791.  Having  succeeded  in  the  case  of  Austria, 
Prussia  and  England  endeavored  to  induce  the  court  of  St.  Peters- 
burg to  negotiate  with  the  Porte  on  the  same  basis  to  which  Austria 
had  consented,  which  is  called  in  diplomatic  terminology  the  basis  of 
the  status  quo,  and  involves  the  principle  of  a  general  restoration  of 
conquests.  This  was  refused  on  the  part  of  Russia,  and  various 
modifications  of  the  status  quo  were  insisted  on  by  Catherine's  repre- 
sentatives. One  design  which  she  com.municated  to  the  courts  of 
Berlin  and  London  was  a  project  for  erecting  the  provinces  of  Mol- 
davia, Wallachia,  and  Bessarabia  into  an  independent  sovereignty, 
to  be  governed,  as  the  Russian  proposal  vaguely  phrased  it,  by  a 
Christian  prince.  Some  supposed  that  this  sovereign  was  to  be  the 
Archduke  Constantine,  others  that  the  new  crown  was  designed  for 
the  empress's  favorite,  Prince  Potemkin,  who  was  actually  ruling 
these  regions  with  full  regal  pomp  and  power.  But,  whoever  might 
receive  the  title  of  King  of  Moldo-Wallachia,  the  recent  fate  of  the 
Crimea  had  shown  that  the  erection  of  such  a  state  was  the  mere 
preliminary  to  its  annexation  with  Russia.  The  proposal  was  re- 
jected by  England  and  Prussia;  and  the  empress  was  obliged  to 
abandon  this  not  the  least  cherished  of  her  schemes.  But  she  was 
peremptory  in  excepting  Ochakov  and  its  territory  from  the  sug- 
gested rule  for  negotiation,  and  in  requiring  that  the  Russian  fron- 
tier should  be  extended  to  the  Dniester.  Pitt  resolved  to  support 
his  diplomatic  remonstrances  by  the  guns  of  an  English  fleet  in 
the  Baltic,  and  the  requisite  forces  for  a  naval  expedition  were 
prepared  accordingly  in  the  English  ports  at  the  cluse  of  the  year 
1790.  But  the  project  of  a  Russian  war  was  made  unpopular  in 
England  by  the  violent  exertions  of  Fox  and  otlier  opi)onents  of 
Pitt's  ministry. 

France  at  this  time  (1790,  1791)  was  in  the  early  agonies  of 
her  revolution,  and  no  joint  action  against  Russia,  such  as  Ver- 
gennes  had  proposed  in  1783,  could  be  hoped  for  now.  But 
though  thus  deprived  of  what  would  have  been  the  most  effective 
cooperation  abroad  and  hampered  by  party  warfare  at  home.  Pitt 
continued  his  interposition  in  behalf  of  Turkey.  The  intended 
armament  was  not  indeed  sent  to  the  Baltic,  but  the  empress 
thought  it  wise  not  to  provoke  its  aiipcarance  there  by  increasing 
her  demands  for  ccs:=ion  of  Turkic'!  .^:rihir\  :  iliough  tlie  vic^^ri^-^ 
which  her  armies  continued  to  gain  chn-ing  ilie  negotiations  between 
the  court  of  St.  Petersburg-  and  tliuac  ot  London  and  Berlin,  inadc 


362  TURKEY 

1791-1792 

her  waver  for  a  time,  and  almost  resolve  to  brave  England  and 
Prussia,  and  place  her  grandson  on  the  throne  of  Constantinople. 
Ultimately,  more  prudent  counsels  prevailed,  and  it  is  probable  that 
she  was  in  no  little  degree  induced  to  assume  an  appearance  of  mod- 
eration toward  Turkey  by  the  state  of  affairs  in  Poland.  Kosciusko 
and  his  compatriots  had  effected  important  reforms  in  that  country', 
of  which  the  empress  had  openly  expressed  her  disapprobation. 
She  saw  with  anxiety  the  progress  that  was  being  made  in  reor- 
ganizing the  military  force  and  general  resources  of  the  Polish  prov- 
inces which  had  not  yet  been  deprived  of  independence,  and  she 
felt  that  she  had  need  of  her  General  Suvarov,  and  her  veterans 
from  the  Turkish  wars,  to  consummate  the  final  invasion  and  dis- 
memberment of  Poland,  on  which  she  had  already  resolved. 

Preliminary  articles  of  peace  were  agreed  on  between  General 
Repnin  and  the  Grand  Vizier  in  the  autumn  of  1791,  and  regular 
conferences  were  opened  at  Jassy,  which  ended  on  January  9,  1792, 
in  the  peace  of  that  name  between  Russia  and  Turkey. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Jassy  the  dominions  of  Russia  were  extended 
as  far  as  the  Dniester,  and  that  river  was  made  the  boundary  line 
of  the  two  empires.  An  article  was  inserted  (the  5th)  which  in 
somewhat  vague  terms  enjoined  that  the  Turkish  commandants  on 
the  northeastern  frontiers  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  should  cause  no 
annoyance  or  disquiet  under  any  pretext,  either  secretly  or  openly, 
to  the  countries  and  people  then  under  the  rule  of  the  Tsar  of  Tiflis 
and  Kartalinia,  and  that  he  should  levy  nothing  from  them.  In 
order  to  show  the  full  purpose  of  Russia  in  making  this  astute  stipu- 
lation, it  is  necessary  to  explain  that  Catherine,  like  her  predecessor 
Peter  the  Great,  coveted  the  provinces  that  lie  between  the  Euxine 
and  the  Caspian  Seas,  not  only  for  their  intrinsic  value  as  acquisi- 
tions to  the  Russian  Empire,  but  on  account  of  the  advantages 
which  the  possession  of  them  seemed  to  offer  for  attacks  on  the 
Turkish  dominions  in  Asia,  and  also  for  wars  of  conquest  against 
Persia.  Catherine  caused  lines  of  fortresses  to  be  constructed  be- 
tween the  two  seas,  and  she  maintained  a  fleet  on  the  Caspian.  Rus- 
sian emissaries  continually  tampered  with  the  Christian  princes  of 
Georgia,  Immeritia,  Mingrelia  and  the  other  smaller  principalities 
to  induce  them  to  renounce  their  ancient  allegiance  to  the  Sultan  or 
the  Shah  and  to  place  themselves  under  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Russian  empress.  These  practices  had  been  especially  successful 
witli  Heraclius  of  Georgia,  who  was  styled  Czar  of  Tiflis.    He  had 


STRUGGLE     WITH     RUSSIA 


363 


1792 

become  the  pensioner  and  acknowledged  vassal  of  Russia  as  earh- 
as  1785.  The  effect  of  the  5th  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Jassy  was  to 
make  Turkey  acknowledge  Russia  as  the  protector  of  these  impor- 
tant regions.  The  same  policy,  the  same  design  of  Russia  to  appro- 
priate the  Caucasian  provinces,  had  dictated  the  seemingly  obscure 


19th  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Kainardji;  we  shall  recognize  it  pres- 
ently more  clearly  in  the  provisions  of  the  Treaty  of  Akerman. 

As  we  are  now  approaching  the  time  when  Turkey  became 
involved  in  the  great  wars  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  also  the 
commencement  of  the  reforms  which  cost  Sultan  Selim  his  life,  but 
which  Sultan  Alahmud  11.  effectively  resumed,  it  may  be  convenient 
to  pause  and  take  a  brief  survey  of  the  state  of  the  Turkish  Empire 
as  it  was  near  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  before  the 
changes  which  have  been  wrought  in  its  inliabitanLs  and  institutions 
by  the  new  military  organization  of  the  Xizam  Djidid  and  other 
innovations. 


Chapter    XXII 


THE  OTTOMAN   EMPIRE  IN  THE  EIGHTEENTH 
CENTURY 

SULTAN  SELIM  III.  reigned  over  twenty-six  Eyalets  (as  the 
larger  divisions  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  were  named)  in  Eu- 
rope, Asia,  and  Africa,  These  were  parceled  out  into  163 
smaller  departments  called  Livas,  and  each  Liva  was  again  subdi- 
vided into  Kazas,  or  communal  districts.^  Each  Kaza  had  its  own 
municipal  jurisdiction,  and  it  generally  consisted  either  of  a  town 
and  its  dependencies  or  of  a  rural  canton  (Nahiya)  which  often 
comprised  small  towns  as  well  as  villages.  An  Eyalet  was  presided 
over  by  a  Pasha  with  three  horse-tails,  who  had  the  rank  of  Vizier. 
He  had  assigned  to  him  as  the  special  sphere  of  his  government  one 
or  more  of  the  chief  Livas  of  his  Eyalet,  and  he  exercised  a  general 
superior  authority  over  the  local  rulers  of  the  rest.  Seventy-two 
Livas  were  under  the  immediate  command  of  Pashas  with  two 
horse-tails,  and  these,  as  well  as  the  Eyalets,  were  generally,  though 
not  accurately,  spoken  of  as  Pashalics.  In  general  the  appointments 
to  the  Pashalics  were  annual;  though  the  same  individual  often 
retained  his  post  for  many  years,  and  sometimes  for  life,  if  he  was 
too  strong  for  the  Porte  to  depose  him,  or  if  he  provided  a  sufficient 
sum  of  money  from  time  to  time  to  purchase  his  reappointment  from 
the  venal  ministers  of  the  Imperial  Divan.  Twenty-two  of  the 
Livas  were  held  by  Pashas  on  life-appointments. 

The  Turkish  governor  was  supposed  to  be  assisted  in  his  ad- 
ministration by  two  or  three  individuals  chosen  by  the  inhabitants 
of  his  province,  and  confirmed  in  their  functions  by  the  Porte. 
These  were  called  Ayans  or  Notables.  Sometimes  the  office  of 
Ayan  was  hereditary;  but  it  was  then  requisite  that  the  succession 
of  the  new  Ayan  should  be  ratified  by  the  majority  of  the  inhabi- 
tants.     The  Rayas  also,  or  tributary  subjects  of  the  Porte,  had 

1  This  description  of  the  Turkish  Empire  is  chiefly  taken  from  the  seventh 
volume  of  the  work  of  Mouradjea  D'Ohsson. 

364 


THE     EIGHTEENTH     CENTURY  365 

officers  called  Kodji  Bachis  of  their  own  nations,  who  assessed 
upon  individuals  the  tax  imposed  on  the  district. 

The  list  of  the  twenty-six  Eyalets  was  as  follows:  Rumelia, 
Bosnia,  Silistria,  Djezaer  (which  included  the  greater  part  of 
Greece),  Crete,  Anatolia,  Egypt,  Bagdad,  Ricca,  Syria,  Erzerum, 
Sivas,  Seide,  Tchildeir,  Djiddar,  Aleppo,  Caramania,  Diarbekir, 
Adana,  Trebizond,  Mussul,  Tarabulus,  Elbistan,  Kars,  Sherz- 
roul,  and  Van.  There  were  also  several  districts  and  cities  not 
included  in  any  Pashalic  or  Eyalet.  Such  were  the  trans-Danubian 
principalities  of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia.  Such  also  were  tlie  cities 
of  Mecca  and  Medina,  and  many  cantons  of  Kurdistan  were  under 
their  own  hereditary  chiefs  and  were  merely  bound  to  supplv  the 
Sultan  with  a  certain  number  of  soldiers.  The  political  condition 
of  six  Turkoman  cantons  was  the  same.  The  Barbaresque  regencies 
continued  to  hold  the  position  relatively  to  the  Sublime  Porte  which 
has  been  before  described  when  we  were  tracing  the  reign  of  Sultan 
Mohammed  IV. 

Thus,  although  the  Turkish  power  had  before  the  end  of  the 
last  century  been  reft  of  many  fair  provinces,  though  its  Padishah 
had  no  longer  dominion  in  Hungary,  in  Transylvania,  in  the 
Crimea,  or  along  the  northern  coasts  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Sea 
of  Azov,  still,  the  empire  over  which  the  house  of  Othman  claimed 
sovereignty  might  have  been  deemed  one  of  the  amplest  and  richest 
in  the  world  if  its  natural  advantages  and  capacities  only  were  re- 
garded. But  the  authority  of  Sultan  Selim  III.  was  scarcely  recog- 
nized, even  in  name,  in  many  of  the  best  provinces  of  which  he 
styled  himself  the  ruler;  and  almost  the  whole  of  Turkey  was  in 
that  state  of  official  insubordination  and  local  tyranny  in  wliich  the 
feebleness  of  the  sovereign  is  commensurate  with  the  misery  of  the 
people.  The  Wahabites  were  masters  of  all  Arabia,  except  the  two 
cities  of  Mecca  and  Medina,  which  they  had  not  yet  conr[uere(l.  In 
Egypt  the  Mamelukes  treated  the  Sublime  Porte  and  its  officers 
with  open  scorn,  though  the  Sultan's  standard  was  ])ermitted  to 
float  at  Cairo.  In  Syria  the  Druses  and  tlie  ]vletualis  of  Mount 
Lebanon  and  the  hill-country  (^f  Palestine  were  practically  independ- 
ent tribes.  So  were  the  Snliotcs  and  others  in  northern  Ch-ecce 
and  Epirus.  So  were  the  Montenegrins  and  the  dwellers  in  the 
Herzegovina.  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  thougli  in  iovm  restored  to 
Turkey,  were  in  reality  far  more  under  Russian  than  Ottoman  au- 
thority.   And  not  only  by  these  races,  but  al>o  by  the  most  powerful 


366  TURKEY 

of  his  Mohammedan  subjects  the  Sultan's  authority  was  systematic- 
ally disregarded,  though  the  forms  of  allegiance  and  lip-worship 
might  still  be  preserved.  Revolt  and  civil  war  were  the  common 
practices  of  the  chief  Pashas.  In  Acre,  Djezzar  Pasha  refused  tax 
and  tribute,  put  to  death  the  Sultan's  messengers,  and  tyrannized 
over  the  neighboring  country  with  a  savage  cruelty  that  procured 
him  his  surname  of  The  Butcher.  The  Pasha  of  Bagdad  was 
equally  insubordinate,  and  for  many  years  the  Porte  received  no 
revenues  from  the  rich  territory  which  that  potentate  commanded. 
The  same  was  the  case  with  the  Pashas  of  Trebizond  and  Akhalzik. 
In  Widdin  the  celebrated  Pasvan  Oglu  for  many  years  defied  the 
whole  force  of  the  Sultan  and  made  invasions  of  the  adjacent  prov- 
inces like  an  independent  and  avowed  foreign  enemy.  These  are 
only  some  of  the  most  conspicuous  instances  of  viceregal  revolt. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  enumerate  all  the  cases  of  local  rebellion 
and  civil  war  of  which  the  Pashas  were  the  causes,  or  the  victims, 
or  both,  and  it  is  hardly  possible  for  the  imagination  to  compre- 
hend the  character  or  the  amount  of  the  sufferings  with  which  these 
evils  must  have  worn  and  wasted  the  population  of  the  empire. 

Even  when  the  orders  of  the  central  government  received 
obedience  the  misery  of  the  people  was  extreme.  It  has  been  already 
mentioned  that  the  appointments  of  the  Pashas  (with  some  excep- 
tions) were  annual,  and  they  were  generally  and  notoriously  ob- 
tained for  money.  It  was  seldom  that  the  Turk  who  intrigued 
among  the  officials  and  court-favorites  at  Constantinople  for  a 
Pashalic  was  possessed  of  the  necessary  purchase  and  bribery 
money.  He  usually  borrowed  the  requisite  sums  from  one  of  the 
v/ealthy  Greeks  of  the  Fanar,  or  from  one  of  the  Armenian  bankers. 
The  lender  of  the  money  became  in  reality  the  mortgagee  of  the 
Pashalic,  and  he  may  be  said  to  have  been  a  mortgagee  in  posses- 
sion, inasmuch  as  his  confidential  agent  accompanied  the  Pasha 
as  secretary,  and  was  often  the  real  ruler  of  the  province.  As 
usually  happens  when  a  few  members  of  an  oppressed  race  purchase 
power  under  the  oppressors,  these  Raya  agents  of  Moslem  authority 
were  the  most  harassing  and  merciless  in  their  policy  toward  their 
fellow-countrymen.  The  necessity  which  the  Pasha  was  under 
of  repurchasing  his  appointment  at  the  end  of  each  year  prevented 
him  in  ordinary  cases  from  shaking  off  this  financial  bondage. 
Sometimes  before  an  appointment  could  be  obtained  from  the  Porte 
it  was  required  that  one  of  the  Sarrafs  or  Armenian  bankers  should 


THE     EIGHTEENTH     CENTURY  367 

become  surety  for  the  due  transmission  of  the  imperial  revenue. 
The  power  thus  given  to  the  money-lenders,  who  by  their  refusal 
to  continue  their  security  could  reduce  the  Turkish  grandee  to 
the  state  of  a  private  individual,  was  a  fresh  source  of  exaction  to 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Pashalic.  By  these  and  similar  other  abuses 
the  greatest  possible  amount  of  extortion  and  cruelty  toward  the 
subject  was  combined  with  the  smallest  possible  benefit  to  the  im- 
perial government,  as  each  of  the  agents  and  subagents  who  were 
employed  in  this  system  of  bribery,  usury,  and  peculation,  endeav- 
ored to  wring  all  he  could  from  those  beneath  him  and  to  account 
for  as  little  as  possible  to  his  superiors.  The  Ayans,  or  Provincial 
Notables,  who  ought  to  have  protected  their  fellow-countrymen 
from  the  Pasha  and  his  attendant  harpies,  became  too  often  his  ac- 
complices. If  an  Ayan  was  refractory  and  honest,  it  was  an  easy 
thing  to  ruin  him  by  a  false  charge  brought  before  a  Cadi,  who  had 
generally  purchased  his  appointment  by  the  same  means  as  the 
Pasha,  and  was  therefore  equally  venal  and  cruel. 

As  the  Pashas  had  the  power  of  life  and  death  in  their  respec- 
tive districts,  and  each  maintained  the  pomp  and  luxury  of  an  East- 
em  court  as  well  as  the  force  of  a  camp,  all  of  which  had  to  be  paid 
for  by  the  provincials,  the  motives  to  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the 
viceroy  were  infinitely  multiplied,  and  the  checks  to  it  were  almost 
entirely  absent.  If  the  requisite  amount  of  revenue  was  regularly 
transmitted  to  Constantinople,  no  questions  were  asked  as  to  how 
it  had  been  collected.  Long  and  vehement  complaints  against  the 
cruelty  of  a  Pasha  might  rouse  the  Sublime  Porte  to  punish  him. 
especially  if  he  was  wealthy.  But  in  such  cases  the  provincials  ob- 
tained no  redress  for  their  past  wrongs.  The  treasures  of  the  bow- 
strung  Pasha  were  appropriated  by  the  Sultan;  and  those  from 
whom  they  had  been  extorted  only  gained  a  new  governor,  fre- 
quently more  rapacious,  because  more  needy,  than  his  predecessor. 

The  power  of  the  inferior  Turkish  ofBcers,  the  Begs  and  Agas. 
was  like  that  of  the  Pasha  in  kind,  both  as  to  obtainment  and 
exercise,  though  less  in  degree.  There  were  also  throughout  the 
empire  swarms  of  petty  local  tyrants,  who  farmed  from  the  Porte 
the  revenues  of  small  districts  of  four  or  five  villages  each,  under 
grants  which  were  termed  Mocattelis,  if  the  lease  was  for  life,  and 
Iltezim,  if  it  was  for  a  term  of  years. 

The  weakness  and  disorder  of  the  Turkish  Empire  were  seri- 
ously increased  by  the  enormous  alnises  of  its  feudal  system,  and  by 


368  TURKEY 

the  infinite  and  antagonistic  variety  of  dominations,  princedoms, 
and  powers  that  had  been  suffered  to  grow  up  in  many  of  its  most 
important  provinces.  In  describing  the  state  of  the  Ottoman  Empire 
when  at  its  meridian  of  glory  under  Suleiman  the  Ordainer  atten- 
tion has  been  drawn  to  the  peculiar  incidents  of  feudalism  among 
the  Turks  in  their  best  ages,  and  to  the  causes  which  prevented  the 
growth  of  an  insubordinate  noblesse,  like  that  which  defied  the 
throne  and  oppressed  the  commons  throughout  nearly  all  Christen- 
dom in  the  medieval  times.  But  before  the  close  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  all  this  had  been  widely  changed;  and  Turkey 
(especially  in  its  Asiatic  districts)  abounded  with  mutinous  hered- 
itary feudatories,  who  generally  were  styled  Dereh  Begs  or  Lords 
of  the  Valleys,  and  their  lawless  arrogance  toward  their  sovereign 
and  oppression  of  their  dependents  emulated  the  worst  baronial  and 
knightly  abuses  that  ever  were  witnessed  in  Germany  or  France.  A 
nominal  deference  to  the  Sultan  and  his  Pasha  might  be  professed, 
but  an  officer  from  Constantinople  who  endeavored  to  enforce  any 
order  of  the  Sublime  Porte  in  the  stronghold  of  a  Dereh  Beg  would 
have  met  with  the  same  treatment  that  an  emissary  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  III.  might  have  expected  in  the  castle  of  a  German  baron 
on  the  Rhine,  or  as  the  messengers  of  Charles  the  Simple  would 
have  received  if  they  had  carried  threat  or  mandate  to  Brittany  or 
Rouen. 

It  is  impossible  to  supply  any  adequate  description  of  the  num- 
ber and  nature  of  the  minor  local  powers  that  struggled  with  each 
other  and  with  the  central  government  of  Turkey  during  this  period 
of  "  her  wild  misrule  of  her  own  anarchy."  The  account  wdiich  Sir 
John  Cam  Hobhouse  (afterward  Lord  Broughton)  gave  of  a  single 
province,  Albania,  may  serve  as  an  example.  He  says,  "  Specimens 
of  almost  every  sort  of  government  are  to  be  found  in  Albania.  Some 
districts  and  towns  are  commanded  by  one  man,  under  the  Turkish 
title  of  Bolu  Bashee,  or  the  Greek  name  of  Capudan,  which  they 
have  borrowed  from  Christendom;  others  obey  their  elders;  others 
are  under  no  subjection,  but  each  man  governs  his  own  family.  The 
power  in  some  places  is  in  abeyance,  and  although  there  is  no  ap- 
parent anarchy,  there  are  no  rulers.  This  was  the  case  in  our  time 
at  the  large  city  of  Argyro  Castro.  There  are  parts  of  the  country 
where  every  Aga  or  Beg,  which,  perhaps,  may  answer  to  our  ancient 
country  squire,  is  a  petty  chieftain  exercising  every  right  of  the  men 
of  the  village.     The  Porte,  which  in  the  days  of  Ottoman  greatness 


THE     EIGHTEENTH     CENTURY  369 

divided  the  country  into  several  small  Pashalics  and  commanderies, 
is  now  but  little  respected,  and  the  limits  of  her  different  divisions 
are  confused  and  forgotten." 

In  the  nominally  central  government  at  Constantinople  the 
Grand  Vizier  was  still  the  Sultan's  principal  officer  in  temporal 
affairs,  both  civil  and  military;  and  the  Mufti,  as  head  of  the  Ulema, 
continued  to  be  next  in  spiritual  rank  to  the  Sultan,  who,  as  Caliph, 
was  and  is  the  religious  chief  of  all  Sunnite  Mohammedans.  Un- 
der the  Grand  Vizier,  besides  his  Kaimakan  or  lieutenant,  were  the 
Kiaya  Beg,  who  attended  to  the  home  department,  and  also  to  the 
war  office. 

Foreign  affairs  were  the  special  province  of  the  Reis  Effendi. 
The  Thaush  Bashi  was  vice-president  of  the  Grand  Vizier's 
judicial  tribunal,  and  chief  of  the  police  force  of  the  capital. 
He  also  acted  as  the  Lord  High  Marshal.  Besides  these,  there  were 
the  Nischandyis  or  secretaries,  the  Defterdars  or  treasurers,  and  the 
holders  of  the  other  ancient  offices  that  have  l^een  descriljed  when 
we  examined  the  Turkish  system  of  government  in  the  times  of 
Mohammed  the  Conqueror.  And,  without  attempting  to  enumerate 
or  analyze  the  prolix  catalogue  of  ceremonious  courtiers  and 
speculating  placemen,  who  are  described  by  those  who  wrote 
a  century  ago  on  Turkish  matters,  it  may  be  generally  stated, 
that,  both  in  quantity  and  character,  they  were  such  and  so  many, 
as  are  usually  found  to  multiply  in  decaying  empires,  especially  in 
empires  of  the  East. 

The  Imperial  Divan  was  now  generally  convened  not  oftener 
than  about  once  in  six  weeks.  The  ordinary  Di\an  of  the  Grand 
Vizier  sat  much  more  frequently,  and  formed  a  court  of  justice, 
at  which,  besides  the  Vizier,  the  Capudan  Pasha,  the  two  Katli- 
askers,  and  the  Xischandyis  and  Defterdars  attended.  On  important 
occasions  a  grand  council  was  summoned,  consisting  of  nearly  forty 
members  and  comprising  the  chiefs  of  all  the  orders  in  the  state. 
In  extreme  emergencies  the  members  were  called  together  to  what 
was  termed  a  standing  Divan,  and  deHberated  without  taking 
seats. 

The  power  of  the  Ulema.  and  especially  of  the  head  of  them, 
the  Mufti,  to  which  we  liave  already  alluded,  had  increased  and 
was  increasing.  So  was  the  amount  of  ecclesiastical  property,  tlie 
Vakufs.  And  thougli  t1ie  system  of  ])ermitling  so  large  a  proi)or- 
tion  of  the  landed  property  of  the  empire  to  be  held  in  mortmain 


370  TURKEY 

was  unquestionably  evil,  it  was  made  to  act  in  some  degree  as  an 
alleviation  of  other  evils,  which  generally  affected  the  possessors  of 
property  under  the  extreme  misgovernment  of  Turkey.  Not  only 
private  estates,  but  whole  districts  and  cities  were  the  properties  of 
mosques  or  other  ecclesiastical  foundations;  and  the  occupier  of 
them,  on  paying  the  stipulated  quit-rents  (which  were  usually 
light),  lived  in  undisturbed  possession,  and  in  immunity  both  from 
the  imposts  of  the  central  government  and  the  exactions  of  the  local 
functionaries.  Similar  privileges  were  often  enjoyed  by  those  who 
dwelt  in  districts  that  were  the  special  property  of  the  Sultana 
Valide  and  other  high  individuals.  There  were  also  many  places 
where  by  ancient  custom  or  royal  grant,  the  Raya  lived  almost  free 
from  the  intrusion  of  any  of  the  dominant  race;  and  where  it  was 
absolutely  forbidden  for  any  Turk  to  become  a  resident.  It  was  to 
the  existence  of  these  and  similar  privileged  localities  in  the  empire 
— to  the  protection  which  the  Prankish  residents  enjoyed  under  their 
own  laws  and  consuls — to  the  exceptional  good  government  of  just 
and  able  men  who  sometimes  became  Pashas — and  also  to  the  stern 
order  sometimes  enforced  in  their  provinces  by  some  of  the  most 
ferocious  Pashas,  who  would  tolerate  no  crimes  but  their  own,  that 
Turkey  was  indebted  for  what  little  commercial  activity  and  wealth 
was  to  be  found  in  her  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  speaking. 

If  we  look  to  the  means  which  the  Sultan  possessed  of  assert- 
ing his  authority  against  domestic  rebels  or  foreign  invaders,  we 
shall  find  the  military  system  of  the  empire  so  wretched  that  instead 
of  wondering  at  the  success  of  the  Christian  powers  against  it,  there 
seems  to  be  rather  cause  for  surprise  at  the  Russians  and  Austrians 
not  having  completed  its  overthrow.  There  were  the  paid  troops, 
called  generally  the  Kapikouli  (which  means,  literally,  slaves  of  the 
Porte),  and  the  unpaid  troops,  who  were  termed  Toprakli.  The 
largest  and  by  far  the  most  important  part  of  the  paid  troops  was 
the  once  renowned  corps  of  the  Janissaries.  In  one  of  the  earlier 
chapters  of  this  work  we  have  traced  the  institution  of  this  soldiery 
by  the  councils  of  the  Vizier  Alaeddin  and  Black  Khalil  Tschen- 
dereli  in  the  reign  of  Orkhan,  the  second  sovereign  of  the  house  of 
Othman.  We  have  seen  the  increase  of  their  numbers  and  the  ex- 
cellence of  their  discipline  under  Mohammed  the  Conqueror,  and 
Suleiman  the  Lord  of  his  Age;  their  growing  insubordination 
under  llie  subsequent  Sultans;  the  change  in  the  system  by  which 
they  were  recruited ;  the  increase  of  their  numbers ;  and  the  decrease 


THE     EIGHTEENTH     CENTURY  371 

of  their  military  efficiency.  At  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century 
they  were  computed  to  consist  of  150,000  registered  members,  who 
were  settled  in  the  various  towns  of  the  empire,  where  they  arro- 
gated authority  and  military  preeminence,  and  at  the  same  time 
followed  various  trades.  But  the  large  number  of  those  who  pro- 
cured the  enrollment  of  their  names  as  Janissaries  for  the  sake  of 
the  privileges  and  immunities  which  were  thereby  acquired  was  no 
proof  that  any  force  of  corresponding  amount  could  be  relied  on 
by  the  state  for  actual  service.  The  grossest  frauds  as  to  the  char- 
acter and  capacity  of  the  individuals  who  were  placed  on  the  muster- 
rolls  were  practiced  by  the  private  Janissaries  themselves,  and  still 
more  extensively  by  officers,  who  also  enriched  themselves  by  draw- 
ing pay  for  non-existent  hundreds  and  thousands.  Still,  the 
Janissaries  formed  a  large  community  in  the  empire,  and  one  of  the 
greatest  importance  both  in  war  and  in  peace.  They  were  conspicu- 
ous for  their  bigotry  as  Mohammedans,  and  as  they  knew  the  sus- 
picion with  which  they  and  their  predecessors  had  been  regarded  by 
successive  Sultans,  they  in  turn  watched  every  innovation  and  re- 
form with  jealousy  and  hatred,  and  were  ready  even  to  rise  in  each 
other's  aid  to  exercise  the  right  of  oppressing  the  Rayas  who  were 
beneath  them,  and  what  they  deemed  their  still  more  sacred  right 
of  insurrection  against  the  authorities  that  were  over  them. 

Beside  the  Janissaries,  there  was  a  force  of  artillerymen,  called 
Topidjis,  said  to  be  30,000  in  number,  but  dispersed,  like  tlie 
Janissaries,  in  the  chief  cities  of  the  empire,  and  bound  to  join  their 
standards  on  receiving  orders.  The  Bostandjis,  or  gardeners,  of 
the  imperial  palaces  of  Adrianople  and  Constantinople  continued 
to  be  enrolled  and  armed,  and  formed  a  kind  of  bodyguard  for  the 
Sultan.  There  were  other  small  bodies  of  regular  infantry :  and  the 
old  cavalry  corps  of  the  Spahis  and  tlie  Silihdars  were  still  pre- 
served, though  in  little  numerical  strength  or  efficiency.  The  irregu- 
lar forces,  the  Toprakli,  consisted  chiefly  of  the  old  feudal  con- 
tingents which  the  holders  of  Ziamets  and  Timars  were  bound  to 
supply,  but  which,  owing  to  the  abuses  in  tliese  institutions,  were 
now  uncertain  in  amount  and  inferior  in  quality;  nor  could  the 
services  even  of  those  who  appeared  beneath  the  horse-tails  be  relied 
on  for  the  continued  operations  of  a  war.  There  were  also  in  time 
of  hostilities,  levies  of  troops  called  Miri-Askeris,  which  received 
pay  while  in  the  field.  When  a  Turkish  town  was  besieged,  tlie 
^Mohammedan  inhabitants  were  enrolled  as  a  kind  of  national  guard 


372  TURKEY 

for  service  while  the  peril  lasted,  and  were  called  Yerli  Neferats. 
The  other  irregular  volunteers  that  joined  a  Turkish  army  were 
termed  Guenullus. 

Great  assemblages  of  armed  men  from  these  various  sources 
were  sometimes  arrayed  under  the  Ottoman  standards,  especially 
in  the  early  part  of  a  war.  At  the  opening  of  a  first  campaign  the 
Porte  could  set  in  motion  300,000  sabers;  and  if  the  war  was  a  suc- 
cessful one,  there  was  no  lack  of  volunteers  to  recruit  the  armies. 
But  these  large  hosts  were  for  the  most  part  mere  heaps  of  irregular 
troops,  incapable  of  discipline,  and  destitute  of  experience.  They 
were  seldom  even  nominally  enrolled  for  more  than  six  months,  and 
on  the  first  serious  reverse  that  the  army  met  with  they  disbanded 
by  thousands,  and  dispersed  toward  their  homes,  generally  plunder- 
ing the  provinces  in  their  way,  whether  hostile  or  friendly.  Christian 
or  Mohammedan.  Behind  walls  or  entrenchments,  and  in  confused 
engagements  in  broken  countries,  the  native  valor  of  the  individual 
Turk,  and  his  skill  in  the  use  of  the  saber,  made  him  a  formidable 
opponent;  and  the  wild  charge  of  the  Ottoman  horse,  often  over 
ground  which  no  other  cavalry  would  dare  to  traverse,  was  still 
more  destructive  to  a  shaken  or  unready  enemy.  But,  as  compared 
with  the  steady  movements  and  intelligent  organization  of  the 
forces  of  European  Christendom,  a  Turkish  army  was  (as  Napoleon 
termed  it)  a  mere  Asiatic  rabble.  Two  astonishing  but  indisputable 
facts  both  attest  and  account  for  this.  Throughout  the  Turkish 
infantry  and  cavalry  there  was  now  no  regulation  whatever  as  to 
what  weapons  should  be  used,  nor  were  any  of  them  ever  drilled 
together,  or  instructed  to  act  in  bodies  in  the  commonest  military 
evolution.  Each  armed  himself  as  he  pleased ;  and  when  an  action 
had  commenced,  each  may  be  said  to  have  fought  as  he  pleased.  The 
French  General  Boyer  well  describes  the  Turkish  soldiers  of  this 
time  as  "  without  order  or  firmness,  unable  even  to  march  in 
platoons,  advancing  in  confused  groups,  and  falling  on  the  enemy 
in  a  sudden  start  of  wild  and  savage  fury." 

The  condition  of  the  navy,  notwithstanding  the  exertions  of 
Gazi  Hassan  and  of  the  Capudan  Pasha  Hussein,  who  succeeded 
him,  was  even  worse  than  that  of  the  army.  And  altogether  it  may 
be  safely  asserted  that  the  Turkish  Empire  had  reached  its  nadir  of 
misery  and  weakness  about  a  century  ago.  With  the  com- 
mencement of  Sultan  Selim's  reforms  a  new  era  was  opened.  It 
is   true   that   Turkey   has   since   then   suffered    from    defeats   and 


THE     EIGHTEENTH     CENTURY         373 

revolts — she  has  lost  armies,  fleets,  and  provinces ;  but  a  new  spirit 
has  been  infused  into  her  rulers  and  statesmen,  which,  though 
often  checked,  has  never  been  extinguished;  and  which,  what- 
ever may  be  her  ultimate  doom,  has  falsified  the  confident 
predictions  of  Volney  and  other  writers  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  according  to  whom  "  the  Sultan,  equally  af- 
fected with  the  ignorance  of  his  people,  was  to  continue  to  vegetate 
in  his  palace,  women  and  eunuchs  were  to  continue  to  appoint  to 
offices  and  places,  and  governments  were  still  to  be  publicly  offered 
for  sale.  The  Pashas  were  to  pillage  the  subjects  and  impoverish 
the  provinces.  The  Divan  was  to  follow  its  maxims  of  haughtiness 
and  intolerance.  The  people  to  be  instigated  by  fanaticism.  The 
generals  to  carry  on  war  without  intelligence,  and  continue  to  lose 
battles,  until  this  incoherent  edifice  of  power,  shaken  to  its  basis, 
deprived  of  its  support,  and  losing  its  equilibrium,  should  fall,  and 
astonish  the  world  with  another  instance  of  mighty  ruin." 

But  threatened  states,  like  threatened  men,  sometimes  live 
long,  and  in  no  small  degree  the  very  weakness  of  the  empire  was 
destined  to  insure  its  longer  integral  existence.  The  Ottoman 
Empire  of  the  sixteenth  century — then  the  most  powerful  in  the 
w^orld,  covering  as  it  did,  with  the  exception  of  Morocco,  Spain, 
France,  and  Italy,  all  the  countries  of  the  Mediterranean,  all  the 
coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  nearly  all  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea, 
and  reaching  far  into  southeastern  Europe,  until  it  gathered  into 
its  embracing  boundaries  all  of  Hungary  and  the  kingdoms  south 
of  the  lower  Danube — could  command  the  respect  of  the  European 
powers  and  warranted  the  obsequious  haste  of  the  rival  nations 
in  congratulating  the  Turkish  Sultan  on  each  new  victory  gained. 
But  the  sieges  of  Vienna  and  Malta  brought  the  first  real  turn  in 
the  tide  of  affairs. 

Even  then  was  discernible  the  intermittent  but  no  less  unmis- 
takable symptoms  of  a  slow  but  inevitable  decline.  Political  and 
military  affairs  began  to  show  the  increasing  influence  of  the  harem, 
as  the  sovereign  withdrew  into  seclusion  and  abandoned  the  direct 
government  of  his  empire.  The  demoralization  of  the  Janissaries 
could  have  only  one  consequence.  The  Ottoman  Empire  from  the 
very  first  had  risen  by  force  ui  arms,  and  had  been  likened  to  an 
"  armed  camp."  Consuming,  but  never  producing,  it  had  enriched 
itself  by  the  countries  it  conquered  without  benefiting  them  in  return. 
The  disasters  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  all  irreparable, — the 


374  TURKEY 

fight  of  Lepanto,  St.  Gothard,  Vienna,  and,  on  the  very  eve  of  the 
new  century,  the  defeat  at  Zenta.  The  eighteenth  century  added 
its  quota  in  the  loss  of  Petewaradin  and  Belgrade,  with  Temesvar 
and  Ismail  toward  the  latter  part  of  the  century.  Step  by  step  the 
course  of  humiliation  was  marked  by  the  successive  treaties  from 
Sitvatorok  in  1606,  when  the  empire  first  receded,  to  Carlowitz 
in  1699,  which  marked  the  first  actual  dismemberment  of  the 
empire.  Passarowitz  came  in  171 8,  Kainardji  in  1774,  and  the 
Treaty  of  Jassy  in  1792  may  be  said  to  close  the  century.  Even  the 
treaties  of  Falksen  and  Belgrade,  though  less  unfavorable,  cannot 
be  considered  as  conferring  any  lasting  advantages  on  the  Ottomans. 

It  was  the  Treaty  of  Carlov^^itz  on  the  eve  of  the  eighteenth 
century  that  gave  to  history,  in  the  phrase  of  Nicholas  of  Russia, 
the  famous  "  Sick  Man  of  the  East."  The  feebleness  of  the  empire 
was  undisputed,  and  its  ultimate  dissolution,  soon  or  late,  was  as- 
sured no  less  by  the  internal  desperateness  of  the  disease  than  by  the 
officious  solicitations  of  the  invalid's  logical  inheritors. 

The  prophecy  of  Volney  in  1788  was  much  the  same  as  that  of 
Sir  Thomas  Roe,  more  than  a  century  and  a  half  before.  And  the 
same  prophecy  is  heard  in  our  own  day,  more  than  two  hundred 
years  later,  but  meanwhile  the  patient  yet  lives. 


PART  IV 
MODERN  TURKEY.     1792-1910 


Chapter   XXIII 

TURKEY   IN   THE   AGE   OF   REVOLUTION.     1792-1812 

RELIEVED  from  the  immediate  pressure  of  Russian  war  by 
the  Peace  of  Jassy,  and  from  the  imminent  peril  of  its  re- 
.  newal  by  the  death  of  Empress  Catherine,  SuUan  Seh'm 
earnestly  applied  himself  to  the  difficult  and  dangerous  duty  of 
internal  reform.  To  meet  the  multitude  of  evils  that  distracted  the 
state,  he  projected  manifold  and  extensive  changes  in  almost  all  its 
departments.  The  abuses  of  the  feudal  system  were  to  be  dealt  with 
by  abolishing  feudality  itself.  The  Ziamets  and  Timars  were  to  be 
resumed  by  the  sovereign  on  the  deaths  of  their  holders,  and  their 
revenues  were  thenceforth  to  be  paid  into  the  royal  treasury,  and 
appropriated  to  the  maintenance  of  a  new  military  force.  The  ad- 
ministration of  the  provinces  was  to  be  ameliorated  by  curtailing 
the  powers  of  the  Pashas.  Each  ruler  of  an  Eyalet  or  a  Liva  was 
to  be  appointed  for  three  years,  and  at  the  expiration  of  that  term 
the  renewal  of  his  office  was  to  depend  on  his  exertions  to  give  sat- 
isfaction to  the  people  over  whom  he  ruled.  Another  reform  was 
proposed,  from  which  the  provincials  would  have  derived  still 
greater  benefits.  All  farming  of  the  taxes  was  to  be  abolished ;  and 
the  revenue  was  to  be  collected  l3y  officers  of  tlie  imperial  treasury. 
In  the  general  central  government  the  Grand  Vizier's  i)o\ver  was  to 
be  restrained  by  making  it  necessary  for  him  to  consult  the  Divan 
on  all  important  measures.  The  Divan  was  to  consist  of  twelve 
superior  ministers,  one  of  whom  was  bound  to  attend  especially  to 
the  collection  of  the  funds  by  which  the  new  troops  were  to  be  kept 
on  foot.  The  spread  of  intelligence  and  the  advancement  of  edu- 
cation among  all  classes  of  his  subjects  were  earnestly  enc(Uiraged 
by  Selim  III.  The  printing  establishment  which  had  been  founded 
in  the  reign  of  Ahmed  III.  was  revived,  and  many  European  works 
on  tactics  and  fortification  were  translated  from  the  h>ench  and 
published  by  the  Sultan's  orders,  under  the  inspection  of  the  Turkish 
mathematician,  Abdurrhahim  Effendi.     Selim  also  showed  favor 

377 


378  TURKEY 

1792 

and  patronag-e  to  the  establishment  of  schools  throughout  his  do- 
minions. It  was  especially  among  the  Greeks  that  new  educational 
institutions  sprang  up  and  old  ones  regained  fresh  energy  under 
the  Sultan's  auspices ;  and  when  it  was  found  that  the  revolutionary 
party  among  the  Greeks  availed  themselves  of  this  intellectual  move- 
ment to  excite  their  fellow-countrymen  against  the  Turks,  Selim, 
instead  of  closing  the  Greek  schools  and  printing  offices,  established 
a  Greek  press  at  Constantinople,  and  sought  to  counteract  the 
efforts  of  those  opposed  to  the  Turkish  Government  by  employing 
the  pens  of  the  Greek  clergy  of  the  capital  in  its  favor.  He  de- 
signed to  provide  a  certain  number  of  his  Ottoman  subjects  with  a 
better  political  education  than  could  be  acquired  at  Constantinople, 
by  attaching  them  to  the  permanent  embassies  which  he  sought  to 
establish  at  the  chief  European  courts.  Turkish  missions  were  re- 
ceived at  London,  Paris,  Vienna,  and  Berlin;  but  the  cabinet  of 
St.  Petersburg  artfully  avoided  Selim's  proposal  to  accredit  a 
regular  ambassador  to  the  Russian  Empire. 

However  needful  were  these  and  other  measures  for  improving 
the  civil  and  social  condition  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Turkish  Em- 
pire, and  however  valuable  they  were  likely  to  prove,  if  carried  into 
effect,  Selim  well  knew  that  a  properly  disciplined  and  loyal  armed 
force  was  as  indispensable  for  the  enforcement  and  maintenance  of 
internal  reform  as  it  was  for  preserving  the  integrity  of  the  empire 
from  further  attack  from  without.  The  example  of  Peter  the  Great 
of  Russia,  who,  by  means  of  the  new  troops  that  Lefort  trained  for 
him  on  the  model  of  the  armies  of  Western  Europe,  overthrew  both 
domestic  and  foreign  foes,  was  ever  before  the  eyes  of  Selim ;  and 
the  inquiring  Turkish  sovereign  may  have  been  aware  that  already 
in  the  west,  so  high  an  authority  as  Adam  Smith  had  declared 
that  "  whoever  examines  with  care  the  improvements  which  Peter 
the  Great  introduced  into  the  Russian  Empire  will  find  that 
they  almost  all  resolve  themselves  into  the  establishment  of  a 
well-regulated  standing  army."  Among  the  prisoners  made  by 
the  Turks  during  the  last  war,  there  was  one  who  was  a  Turk  by 
birth,  but  had  long  been  in  the  Russian  service,  in  which  he  had 
attained  the  rank  of  lieutenant,  and  the  reputation  of  a  good  officer. 
The  Grand  Vizier,  Yussuf  Pasha  (by  whose  troops  he  had  been 
taken),  was  fond  of  conversing  with  him  on  the  military  systems  of 
the  two  nations,  and  was  at  last  persuaded  to  allow  a  little  corps 
(consisting  chiefly  of  renagades)  to  be  armed  and  drilled  on  the 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  379 

1792-1798 

European  plan.  The  Vizier  used  to  amuse  himself  with  seeing  them 
go  through  their  exercises,  and  when  he  left  the  camp  at  the  end 
of  the  war  he  took  the  little  company  with  him  and  stationed  them 
at  a  village  at  a  short  distance  from  Constantinople.  The  Sultan, 
hearing  of  them,  expressed  a  wish  to  see  "  how  the  infidels  fought 
battles,"  and  went  to  one  of  their  parades.  He  instantly  saw  the 
superiority  of  their  fire  to  that  of  the  ordinary  Turkish  troops,  and 
appreciated  more  than  ever  the  advantages  which  the  arms  and 
discipline  of  his  Christian  enemies  had  long  given  them  over  the 
Ottoman  troops.  The  little  band  was  kept  on  foot,  and  Omar  Aga, 
as  its  chief  was  called,  was  enabled  to  recruit  it  by  enrolling  other 
renegades,  and  also  a  few  indigent  Turks,  who  consented  to  learn 
the  exercise  and  wield  the  weapons  of  tlie  Giaour.  The  Divan  was 
required  by  the  Sultan  to  consider  the  policy  of  introducing  the  new 
system  among  the  Janissaries;  but  this  produced  a  mutiny,  which 
the  Sultan  appeased  for  the  time  by  fair  promises,  and  by  desisting 
from  any  further  measures,  though  Omar  Aga's  company  was  still 
kept  together.  In  1796  General  Albert  Dubayet  arrived  at  Con- 
stantinople as  ambassador  from  the  French  Republic.  He  brought 
with  him  as  a  new  and  acceptable  present  to  the  Sultan  several 
pieces  of  artillery,  with  all  their  appointments  and  munitions, 
to  serve  as  models,  and  a  number  of  French  artillerymen  and 
engineers,  who  were  to  instruct  the  Turkish  Topidjis,  and  to  aid  in 
the  management  of  the  Ottoman  arsenals  and  foundries.  The  am- 
bassador was  accompanied  also  by  drill-sergeants  from  the  French 
horse  and  foot  regiments,  who  were  to  give  lessons  to  the  Spahis 
and  Janissaries.  The  efforts  of  the  French  artillerymen  were  well 
received;  and  marked  improvements  in  the  fabric,  and  the  equip- 
ment, and  the  working  of  the  Turkish  guns  was  effected  by  them. 
Some  progress  was  made  in  arming  and  training  a  squadron  of 
horse  on  the  European  system ;  but  the  Janissaries  again  absolutely 
and  angrily  refused  to  adopt  the  arms  or  learn  the  maneuvers  of 
Frankish  infantry;  and  Duloayet's  drill-sergeants  were  only  able  to 
serve  the  Sultan  by  improving  the  discipline  of  Omar  Aga's  men. 
Albert  Dubayet  died  within  a  few  montlis  after  his  arrival  at  Con- 
stantinople, and  many  of  his  officers  then  left  Turkey.  But  the 
Capudan  Pasha.  Hussein,  who,  like  the  Sultan,  saw  the  value  of  the 
new  system,  took  some  of  them  into  his  own  service,  and  by  high 
pay  and  i)atronag-c  induced  a  few  more  Mussulmans  to  enter  into 
Omar's  corps.     These  new  tr(H)ps  were  about  600  in  numl)er  when 


380  TURKEY 

1798 

war  broke  out  between  France  and  Turkey,  in  1798,  in  consequence 
of  the  attack  which  the  French  Republic,  or  rather  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  made  on  Egypt. 

It  had  been  the  anxious  wish  of  Sultan  Selim  to  keep  clear  of 
the  conflicts  which  the  French  Revolution  had  produced  in  Europe. 
He  knew  the  paramount  necessity  of  reorganizing  his  empire,  and 
the  impossibility  of  this  being  effected  while  it  was  involved  in  the 
jeopardies  of  war.  But  the  tidings  which  reached  Constantinople  in 
July,  1798,  that  a  French  army,  30,000  strong,  under  the  most  cele- 
brated general  of  the  republic,  had  suddenly  landed  in  Egypt  and 
taken  the  city  of  Alexandria  by  storm,  left  the  Sultan  no  alternative. 
It  was  true  that  the  Turkish  authority  in  Egypt  was  little  more  than 
nominal,  and  that  the  Mamelukes,  the  real  lords  and  tyrants  over 
that  country,  were  as  deeply  hated  by  the  Sublime  Porte  as  by  the 
Copts  and  the  Fellahs  whom  they  oppressed.  It  was  true  also  that 
Napoleon  professed  hostility  against  the  Mamelukes  only,  and  put 
forth  proclamations  in  which  he  vaunted  the  sincerity  of  the  alli- 
ance between  the  Turks  and  the  French,  at  the  very  time  that  he 
was  ordering  all  the  severities  of  military  execution  against  the 
Turkish  Janissaries  who  had  defended  Alexandria.  But  the  inten- 
tion of  the  French  general  to  conquer  and  retain  Egypt  for  France, 
or  rather  for  himself,  was  self-evident;  nor  could  the  Porte  forego 
its  rights  of  dominion  over  that  province,  where  its  Pasha  was  still 
titularly  the  supreme  ruler,  and  which  it  had  made  vigorous  efforts 
to  reduce  to  effective  obedience  so  lately  as  1787,  when  the  outbreak 
of  the  Russian  war  checked  Gazi  Hassan  in  his  successful  per- 
formance of  that  duty.  We  know  from  Napoleon's  own  memoirs 
that  he  expected  to  overawe  Constantinople  by  means  of  the  mag- 
nificent fleet  which  had  brought  the  French  army  to  Egypt.  ^  His 
victory  over  the  Mamelukes  at  the  Battle  of  the  Pyramids  on 
July  21,  and  the  submission  of  Cairo  six  days  after  that  battle, 
seemed  to  ensure  the  realization  of  the  dazzling  visions  which 
had  led  him  across  the  Mediterranean.  But  on  August  i  Nel- 
son destroyed  the  French  fleet  in  the  battle  of  the  Nile.  This  at 
once  removed  all  considerations  of  alarm  which  might  have  made 
the  Sultan  pause.  An  alliance  was  concluded  between  Turkey, 
Russia,  and  England,  and  war  was  solemnly  declared  against 
France.  An  Ottoman  army  and  a  fleet  were  forthwith  ordered  to 
be  assembled  at  Rhodes,  and  another  army  was  collected  in  Syria. 

J  Montholon's  '"  History  of  the  Captivity  of  Napoleon,"  vol.  iv.  p.  195. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  881 

1799 

The  formidable  Pasha  of  Acre,  Djezzar  Pasha,  though  contemptu- 
ously independent  of  his  Sultan  in  times  of  peace,  consented  to  act 
as  his  Seraskier  against  the  Giaours  of  Franghestan,  and  took  the 
command  of  the  Syrian  forces.  It  was  designed  that  the  Syrian 
army  should  cross  the  desert  and  attack  the  French  in  Egypt  early 
in  1799,  and  that  the  armament  from  Rhodes  should  act  simul- 
taneously with  it  by  landing  16,000  of  the  best  Turkish  troops  under 
Mustapha  Pasha  at  Aboukir.  The  activity  of  Napoleon  discon- 
certed these  projects.  Instead  of  waiting  to  be  thus  assailed  in 
Egypt,  he  anticipated  his  enemies  by  crossing  the  desert  into  Syria 
during  the  winter,  and  carrying  offensive  war  into  that  important 
province.  In  his  own  words,  he  expected  that  "  according  to  this 
plan,  the  divisions  of  the  army  of  Rhodes  would  be  obliged  to  hasten 
to  the  aid  of  Syria,  and  Egypt  would  remain  tranquil,  which  would 
permit  us  successively  to  summon  the  greatest  part  of  our  forces  to 
Syria.  The  Mamelukes  of  Murad  Beg,  and  of  Ibrahim  Beg,  the 
Arabs  of  the  Egyptian  desert,  the  Druses  of  ]\Iount  Lebanon,  the 
Metualis,  the  Christians  of  Syria,  the  whole  party  of  the  Sheiks  of 
Azov  in  Syria  might  join  the  army  when  it  was  master  of  that 
country,  and  the  commotion  would  be  communicated  to  the  whole 
of  Arabia.  These  provinces  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  in  which  the 
Arabian  language  was  spoken  desired  a  great  change,  and  only 
waited  for  someone  to  bring  it  about.  Should  the  fortune  of  war 
be  favorable,  the  French  might,  by  the  middle  of  summer,  reach  the 
Euphrates  with  100,000  auxiliaries,  who  would  have  as  a  rescr\c 
25,000  veteran  Frenchmen  of  the  best  troops  in  the  world  and 
numerous  trains  of  artillery.  Constantinople  would  then  be 
menaced ;  and  if  the  French  could  succeed  in  reestablishing  friendly 
relations  with  the  Porte,  they  might  cross  the  desert  and  march 
upon  India  toward  the  end  of  autumn."  ^ 

These  dreams  of  Oriental  conquest  were  finally  dissipated  be- 
fore St.  Jean  d'Acre.  Djezzar  Pasha  had  proved  himself  in  readi- 
ness and  energy  no  unwortliy  opponent  of  the  great  victor  of  Italy 
and  Egypt;  and  English  skill  and  gallantry  now  cooperated  with 
the  stubborn  valor  of  the  Turks.  Djezzar  had  sent  Abdallah,  the 
Pasha  of  Damascus,  forward  with  the  advanced  guard  of  tlie 
Syrian  forces  as  early  as  January,  1799.  Al)da]lah  garrisoned  Gaza 
and  Jaffa,  and  proceeded  as  far  as  El  Ariscli,  which  is  the  key  o\ 
Egypt  on  its  Syrian  side.      Na]iolcon    commenced  his  march   in 

2  Montholon'b  "History  <>i  the   Captivity   of  Napoleon,"   vol.   iv. 


382  TURKEY 

1799 

February.  He  took,  without  difficulty,  El  Arisch  on  February  15, 
and  Gaza  a  few  days  afterward.  Jaffa  resisted  more  obstinately, 
but  was  breached  and  stormed  on  March  3.  Two  thousand  Turkish 
soldiers,  who  were  made  prisoners  here,  were  on  the  following  day 
put  to  death  in  cold  blood. 

Napoleon  then  advanced  upon  Acre,  which  was  the  only  place 
that  could  stop  him  from  effecting  the  complete  conquest  of  Syria. 
The  siege  began  on  March  20,  and  was  maintained  with  the 
greatest  vigor  and  determination  on  both  sides  until  May  20, 
when  Napoleon  reluctantly  abandoned  his  prospects  of  an  im- 
perial career  beyond  the  Euphrates  and  the  Indus,  and  retreated 
with  the  remains  of  his  forces  upon  Egypt.  In  this  siege  no  less 
than  eight  assaults  were  given  by  the  French,  and  eleven  desperate 
sallies  made  by  the  defenders.  The  operations  of  Napoleon  were 
greatly  retarded  in  the  first  weeks  by  his  deficiency  in  heavy 
artillery.  Sir  Sydney  Smith,  who  was  cruising  off  Syria  with  two 
English  ships  of  the  line,  captured  the  flotilla  which  was  conveying 
the  French  battering  train  along  the  coast;  and  he  aided  the  de- 
fenders of  Acre  still  more  effectively  by  landing  gunners  and 
marines  from  his  own  ships,  and  also  the  emigrant  French  officer, 
Colonel  Philippeaux,  who  took  the  command  of  the  engineer  force 
in  the  city.  Philippeaux  and  many  more  brave  men  perished  dur- 
ing the  defense;  and  the  French  obtained  in  April  some  mortars 
and  heavy  guns  which  their  Rear  Admiral  Perree  landed  near  Jaffa. 
A  large  army  also  which  the  Pasha  of  Damascus  assembled  in  Syria 
for  the  relief  of  Acre  was  completely  defeated  and  dispersed  by 
Napoleon  and  two  divisions  of  his  troops  at  the  battle  of  Mount 
Thabor,  while  the  remainder  of  his  force  maintained  the  position 
before  the  besieged  city.  But  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  prevent 
Djezzar  Pasha  from  receiving  reinforcements  by  sea ;  and  on 
May  7  a  Turkish  squadron  landed  12,000  men  in  the  harbor. 
These  included  the  new  troops,  armed  with  musket  and  bayonet  and 
disciplined  in  the  European  system,  who  have  been  already  de- 
scribed. This  body  signalized  itself  by  gallantry  and  steadiness 
during  the  remainder  of  the  siege,  and  attracted  the  notice  of  the 
besieging  general  as  well  as  of  the  Turks.  Napoleon  had  received 
further  supplies  of  artillery,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  defenses  of 
Acre  became  a  mass  of  blood-stained  ruins.  But  every  attempt  of 
the  French  to  charge  through  the  living  barriers  of  the  garrison 
and  their  English  comrades  was  repulsed  with  heavy  loss.     The 


1799 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  383 


number  of  Napoleon's  wounded  who  lay  at  Jaffa  and  in  the  camp 
was  12,000,  and  the  plague  was  in  his  hospitals.  ^  His  retreat  was 
conducted  with  admirable  skill  and  celerity,  and  Napoleon  soon 
found  that  his  presence  in  Egypt  was  deeply  needed  to  quell  the 
spirit  of  insurrection  that  had  arisen  there,  and  to  encounter  the 
Turkish  army  from  Rhodes, 

This  army,  commanded  by  Mustapha,  the  Pasha  of  Rumelia, 
and  escorted  by  Sir  Sydney  Smith's  squadron,  landed  at  Aboukir 
on  July  II.  It  consisted  of  about  15,000  infantry,  with  a  con- 
siderable force  of  artillery,  but  without  horse.  Mustapha  Pasha 
assaulted  and  carried  the  redoubts  which  the  French  had  formed 
near  the  village  of  Aboukir,  put  to  the  sword  the  detachment 
of  Marmont's  corps  which  he  found  there;  and  then,  in  expectation 
of  an  attack  from  the  main  French  army,  he  proceeded  to  strengthen 
his  position  with  a  double  line  of  entrenchments.  Napoleon  col- 
lected his  forces  with  characteristic  rapidity,  and  on  July  25  was 
before  the  peninsula  of  Aboukir.  The  action  that  ensued  was 
well  contested  but  decisive.  Napoleon  cut  off  some  detached 
bodies  of  the  Turks,  and  carried  their  first  line  without  much  diffi- 
culty. But  behind  the  second  line  the  Pasha's  troops  resisted  des- 
perately, and  aided  by  the  fire  of  the  English  gunboats  in  the  bay, 
they  drove  the  French  columns  back  with  considerable  loss.  At  this 
critical  moment  the  Turks  left  their  entrenchments  and  dispersed 
about  the  field  to  cut  off  the  heads  of  their  fallen  enemies.  Napoleon 
took  instant  advantage  of  their  disorder.  He  sent  his  reserves  for- 
ward ;  and  Murat,  with  the  French  cavalry,  dashed  through  an 
opening  between  the  redoubts  into  the  midst  of  the  Ottoman  posi- 
tion. Murat  forced  his  way  to  ^Mustapha  Pasha's  tent,  and  had 
exchanged  blows  with  the  Turkisli  general,  each  slightly  wounding 
the  other,  before  the  Pasha,  seeing  the  inevitable  ruin  of  liis  army, 
consented  to  surrender.  Pursued  at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  by 
the  victorious  French,  the  mass  of  tlie  Tiu-ks  were  thrust  into  the 
sea,  the  whole  bay  appearing  for  a  few  minutes  to  be  covered  with 
their  turbans,  until  they  sank  by  thousands  and  perished  beneath 
the  waves.  After  this  victory,  which  restored  to  the  French,  for  a 
few  months,  the  undisputed'  possession  of  h^gypt,  Napoleon  de- 
parted from  that  country  to  w  in  empire  in  the  West,  though  it  had 
eluded  him  in  the  Eastern  world. 

General  Kleber,  who  was  left  in  command  of  the  French  force 
3  ]\lontlioloii,  "Jlistory  of  llic  Caplivit}   of  Xapolcon/"  vol.  iv.  p.  j8o. 


S84  TURKEY 

1800-1807 

in  Egypt,  entered  into  a  convention  with  Sir  Sydney  Smith,  the 
English  commodore,  for  evacuating  the  province,  but  the  Enghsh 
admiral,  Lord  Keith,  refused  to  ratify  the  terms,  and  a  large 
Turkish  army,  under  the  Grand  Vizier,  entered  Egypt  early  in  the 
year  1800.  Kleber  completely  defeated  this  host  at  the  battle  of 
Heliopolis  on  March  20,  and  it  was  ultimately  by  the  English 
expedition  under  Abercrombie  and  Hutchinson  that  Egypt  was 
wrested  from  the  French. 

On  the  western  frontier  of  the  Ottoman  dominions  in  Europe 
some  territorial  acquisitions  were  made  in  consequence  of  the  war 
between  the  Porte  and  France,  and  of  the  alliance  of  the  Sultan 
with  Russia  and  England,  which  that  war  produced.  France  had, 
by  the  Treaty  of  Campo  Formio,  between  her  and  Austria,  in  1797 
(when  these  two  powers  agreed  that  the  republic  of  Venice  should 
be  extinct),  obtained  possession  of  the  Ionian  Islands  and  their  de- 
pendencies on  that  continent,  Prevesa,  Parga,  Vonitza,  Gomenitza, 
and  Butrinto,  which  had  formed  portions  of  the  Venetian  do- 
minions. Immediately  that  the  war  was  declared  against  France  by 
the  Porte  in  1798,  Ali  Pasha,  the  celebrated  Despot  of  Epirus, 
marched  troops  upon  Prevesa,  Vonitza,  and  Butrinto,  and  won  these 
cities  from  the  French.  Soon  afterward  a  Russian  fleet  from  the 
Black  Sea  sailed  to  the  Bosphorus,  where  it  was  joined  by  a  Turkish 
squadron,  and  the  combined  armament  entered  the  Mediterranean, 
where  it  conquered  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  afterward  endeavored 
to  aid  the  enemies  of  the  French  on  the  coasts  of  Italy,  which  then 
witnessed  the  strange  spectacle  of  the  forces  of  the  Sultan  and  the 
Czar  cooperating  to  support  the  Pope. 

The  Ionian  Islands  were  at  first  (1801)  placed  under  the  joint 
protectorate  of  the  Russians  and  Turks,  Disputes  naturally  fol- 
lowed, and  it  was  agreed  in  1802  that  one  of  these  ill-matched 
guardians  should  resign.  It  was  left  to  the  Greek  inhabitants  of  the 
islands  to  make  the  selection.  They  chose  to  retain  the  Russian  em- 
peror as  their  protector,  and  the  Turks  withdrew  accordingly.  The 
acquisition  of  these  islands  was  always  a  favorite  project  with  Ali 
Pasha,  more,  however,  with  a  view  to  aggrandize  himself  than 
from  any  desire  to  strengthen  his  master.  But  he  never  succeeded 
in  obtaining  them.  They  passed  in  1807  from  Russian  to  French 
sovereignty,  and  were  afterward  captured  by  the  English,  who  were 
for  many  years  tlie  supreme  rulers  of  what  was  termed  the 
Septinsular  Republic. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  386 

1800-1802 

The  possession  of  the  old  Venetian  districts  on  the  mainland 
was  confirmed  to  Turkey  by  agreement  between  her  and  Russia  in 
1800.  Butrinto,  Prevesa,  and  Vonitza,  which  had  been  taken  by 
AH  Pasha,  were  retained  by  him ;  but  Parga,  which  was  garrisoned 
by  a  body  of  hardy  Suhotes,  refused  to  submit,  and  nobly  main- 
tained her  independence  for  fourteen  years.  During  four  more 
years  she  was  protected  by  England,  and  when  that  protection  was 
withdrawn,  and  the  city  given  up  to  the  Pasha,  the  inhabitants 
(like  the  Phocseans  of  old)  abandoned  their  homes  rather  tlian  be- 
come the  subjects  of  an  Eastern  despot.  We  have  been  glancing 
far  forward,  while  speaking  of  the  fate  of  these  relics  of  the  old 
Venetian  Empire  in  Greece,  in  order  that  they  may  not  again  require 
our  notice.  But  we  must  now  revert  to  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  has  been  mentioned  that  the  Turks,  in  the  year 
1802,  gave  up  to  Russia  their  share  of  the  protectorate  of  the  Seven 
Islands ;  and  in  October  of  that  year  the  influence  of  Russia 
obtained  a  hattisherif  from  the  Sultan  in  favor  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  by  which  the  Porte  pledged  itself  not 
to  remove  the  reigning  Hospodars  of  those  principalities  without 
previous  reference  to  Russia,  and  not  to  allow  any  Turks,  except 
merchants  and  traders,  to  enter  either  territory.  The  November  of 
the  preceding  year,  1801,  had  been  a  still  more  important  epoch.  It 
was  then  that  a  general  though  brief  pacification  throughout  Europe 
was  effected,  in  which  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  included,  so  far,  at 
least,  as  regarded  foreign  powers.  By  a  treaty  between  France  and 
Turkey  (negotiated  concurrently  wath  the  Peace  of  Amiens  be- 
tween France  and  England),  Napoleon,  then  Chief  Consul,  ac- 
knowledged the  sovereignty  of  the  Porte  over  Egypt  and  its  other 
dominions  in  full  integrity;  and  the  Sultan  renewed  the  ancient 
privileges  which  the  French,  under  their  kings,  had  enjoyed  in 
Turke}^  The  old  policy  of  France,  in  seeking  tlie  friendship  of  the 
Ottoman  court,  was  now  revived,  and  before  long  the  skill  of 
Napoleon's  ambassadors,  Generals  Rrune  and  Sebastiani,  restored 
the  French  influence  at  Constantinople. 

Selim  had  now  a  second  respite  from  war  with  any  European 
power,  until  he  was  attacked  by  Russia  in  1806.  But  this  was  no 
period  of  tranquillity  for  the  Turkish  I'jnpire.  The  Wahabites  re- 
newed their  attacks  on  Syria,  and  in  1802  tliey  captured  the  cities 
of  Mecca  and  ^Medina,  so  that  all  Arabia  was  now  in  their  posses- 
sion.    The  loss  of  the  Holv  Cities,  the  indignities  with  which  the 


386  TURKEY 

1802-1806 

Wahabites  treated  the  sanctuaries  and  relics  of  Mohammedanism, 
and  the  cruelties  practiced  by  them  toward  the  Hadjis,  or  pilgrims, 
especially  those  of  the  Sunnite  persuasion,  excited  a  profound  sensa- 
tion throughout  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  tended  to  prejudice  the 
Turkish  part  of  the  population  against  their  innovating  Sultan, 
whose  reign  was  marked  by  such  visitations.  In  Egypt  the  remnant 
of  the  Mamelukes  long  kept  at  bay  the  troops  by  which  Selim  en- 
deavored to  bring  that  province  under  effectual  control.  In  Syria 
Djezzar  Pasha  resumed  his  old  attitude  of  haughty  insubordination 
toward  the  Porte,  and  exercised  independent  tyranny  until  his  death, 
in  1804.  On  the  Danube  Pasvan  Oglu  maintained  himself  against 
all  the  forces  that  the  Sultan  could  employ  for  his  reduction,  until 
at  last  the  Porte  in  1806  made  peace  with  its  stubborn  rebel,  con- 
firmed him  in  all  the  power  which  he  had  usurped,  and  sent  him  the 
insignia  of  a  Pasha  of  the  highest  rank. 

The  troubles  in  Servia  deserve  more  careful  consideration,  as 
their  ultimate  effect  was  to  withdraw  that  important  province  from 
the  practical  authority  of  the  house  of  Othman,  and  to  convert  it 
into  an  independent  Christian  state.  The  narrative  of  this  is  also 
closely  connected  with  that  of  the  contest  between  the  Janissaries 
and  the  Sultan,  and  it  gives  fearful  proof  of  the  stern  necessity  un- 
der which  Selim  and  Mahmud  acted  in  all  their  measures  against 
that  force. 

It  has  been  mentioned,  while  tracing  the  events  of  the  war  of 
the  Emperor  Joseph  11.  against  Turkey,  that  the  Austrian  forces 
which  entered  Servia  were  actively  assisted  by  the  Rayas  of  that 
province.  The  Servians  formed  a  considerable  force,  both  of  horse 
and  foot,  which  rendered  excellent  service  to  the  emperor  and  de- 
fended many  important  districts  from  the  attempts  made  by  the 
Turks  to  reconquer  them.  When  the  Peace  of  Sistova  gave  Servia 
back  to  the  Porte,  with  merely  a  provision  for  an  amnesty  in  favor 
of  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  had  acted  against  the  Sultan,  Turkish 
commissioners  were  sent  from  Constantinople  to  take  possession  of 
the  province:  and  their  surprise  was  extreme,  and  not  unmingled 
with  apprehension,  when  they  found  the  change  that  had  taken  place 
in  their  Christian  subjects,  whom  they  had  been  accustomed  to  re- 
gard as  "  a  weaponless  and  submissive  lierd."  One  of  them  ex- 
claimed to  the  Austrian  officers,  when  a  Servian  troop,  fully  armed 
and  accoutered,  marched  out  in  military  array  from  one  of  the 
fortresses,  "Neighbors,  what  have  you  made  of  our  Rayas?  "^ 

*  Ranke's  "  Servia,"  p.  84. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  387 

1803 

The  Servian  regiments  were  disbanded,  and  the  Turks  returned  to 
their  old  dominion ;  but  the  military  spirit  which  had  been  called  into 
action  among  the  Rayas  could  not  be  easily  extinguished. 

It  was,  however,  not  against,  but  in  aid  of  the  Sultan,  that  the 
Servians  next  appeared  in  arms.  That  turbulent  tyranny  of  the 
Janissaries  was  the  cause  of  this  strange  phenomenon.  At  no  place 
had  the  members  of  that  body  proceeded  to  such  lengths  of  lawless 
outrage  as  at  Belgrade,  where  their  commanders  already  styled 
themselves  Dahis,  in  imitation  of  the  rulers  of  the  Barl3aresque 
states,  who  had  originally  been  raised  to  independent  power  from 
among  a  mutinous  soldiery.  The  Janissaries  of  Belgrade  and  the 
other  Servian  towns  robbed  and  murdered  not  only  the  Rayas,  but 
their  fellow-countrymen,  the  Spahis — the  feudal  lords  of  the  land. 
The  Pasha's  authority  was  so  insignificant  that  the  Austrians,  dur- 
ing the  war,  treated  with  the  Aga  of  the  Janissaries  instead  of  with 
the  legitimate  viceroy  of  the  Sultan.  As  this  state  of  insubordina- 
tion and  violence  was  renewed  in  Servia  after  the  peace,  Selim  de- 
termined to  act  vigorously  against  these  rebels,  and  Ebu  Bekir  was 
sent  to  Belgrade  as  Pasha,  with  a  firman  which  commanded  the 
Janissaries  to  quit  that  city  and  the  entire  pashalic.  According  to 
the  too  common  policy  in  the  East  of  using  the  basest  crimes  to 
punish  criminals,  the  chief  leader  of  the  Janissaries  was  removed 
by  assassination,  and  the  firman  was  then  published  and  enforced. 
The  expelled  Janissaries  joined  Pasvan  Oglu,  the  rebel  of  \\'id(lin. 
and  at  their  instigation  Pasvan's  forces  invaded  Servia.  In  this 
emergency,  Hadji  Mustapha  (who  had  succeeded  ICbu  Bekir  as 
Pasha  of  Belgrade)  called  on  the  Servians  to  take  up  arms  in  de- 
fense of  the  province.  Both  Hadji  Mustapha  and  Ebu  Bekir  had 
governed  Servia  with  justice  and  humanity,  and  the  country  had 
flourished  and  become  enriched  l)y  commerce  with  Austria  under 
their  rule.  The  Servians  gladly  obeyed  the  summons  of  the  Pasha 
against  their  old  tyrants,  the  rebel  Janissaries,  and  victoriously  de- 
fended the  pashalic.  But  the  other  Janissaries  of  tlie  empire,  and 
especially  those  at  Constantinople,  received  tlic  tidings  of  the  events 
in  Servia  with  the  highest  indignation,  with  which  the  Ulema  and 
the  Mohammedan  population  in  general  largely  sympathized.  Selim 
found  it  necessary  to  give  way;  Hadji  ^lustapha  received  an  order 
of  the  Divan  to  readmit  the  Janissaries  to  Belgrade.  They  were 
restored  accordinglv,  and  they  recommenced  their  sway  there  In- 
murdering  one  of  the  chief  Servian  oihcers,  and  soon  proceeded  to 


388  TURKEY 

1803 

overpower  and  murder  the  Pasha.  They  condescended  to  ask  for  a 
new  Pasha  from  the  Porte ;  but  their  intention  to  keep  the  sovereign 
power  in  their  own  hands  was  evident.  Four  of  their  chiefs  assumed 
the  title  of  Dahis,  and  allotted  the  country  among  them.  Each 
was  the  Tetrarch  of  a  district;  but  Belgrade  was  their  common 
capital,  where  they  met  and  deliberated.  As  the  number  of  the 
Janissaries  of  Belgrade  seemed  insufficient  to  uphold  their  power, 
they  formed  another  armed  force  of  Mohammedans  from  Bosnia 
and  Albania,  who  flocked  together  to  the  pillage  of  Servia.  It  was 
not  only  the  Rayas  over  whom  they  tyrannized — 'the  old  Turkish 
feudal  proprietors,  the  Spahis,  were  expelled  by  them  from  the 
province,  and  the  Janissaries  now  established  themselves  as  absolute 
lords  of  the  soil. 

In  Bosnia  Ali  Beg  Widaitsh  of  Sumnik  made  himself  master 
of  a  large  territory  in  the  same  manner,  and  entered  into  close 
alliance  with  the  Dahis  of  Belgrade.  Pasvan  Oglu  also  (who  was 
still  in  rebellion  against  the  Porte)  was  their  confederate;  and  thus 
a  Mohammedan  brigand  league  was  formed  nearly  across  the  whole 
north  of  European  Tartary,  in  direct  antagonism  to  the  house  of 
Othman.  The  exiled  Spahis  of  Servia  implored  the  Sultan's  aid, 
and  the  Rayas,  whose  sufferings  were  now  infinitely  multiplied,  also 
called  on  him  as  their  sovereign  to  rescue  them  from  these  op- 
pressors. The  Servian  Kneses  (as  the  Christian  local  magistrates 
were  termed)  sent  an  address  to  Constantinople  in  which  they 
recapitulated  some  of  the  wrongs  which  they  endured.  They  said 
they  were  not  only  reduced  to  abject  poverty  by  the  Dahis,  but  "  they 
were  attacked  in  their  religion,  their  morality,  and  their  honor ;  and 
no  husband  was  secure  as  to  his  wife,  no  father  as  to  his  daughter, 
no  brother  as  to  his  sister.  The  church,  the  cloister,  the  monks,  the 
priests,  all  were  outraged." 

The  Porte  was  at  this  time  destitute  of  means  to  crush  the 
Dahis.  It  could  only  threaten.  An  intimation  was  sent  to  Belgrade 
that  unless  the  Janissaries  amended  their  conduct  the  Sultan  would 
send  an  army  against  them ;  "  but  not  an  Ottoman  army,  for  it 
would  be  a  grievous  thing  to  cause  true  believers  to  fight  against 
each  other ;  but  soldiers  should  come  against  them  of  other  nations, 
and  of  another  creed;  and  then  such  evil  should  overtake  them  as 
had  never  yet  befallen  an  Osmanli." 

On  hearing  this  the  Dahis  said  to  one  another,  "  What  army 
can  the  Padishah  mean  ?    Is  it  to  be  of  Austrians  or  Russians  ?  Nay, 


1804 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  389 


he  will  not  bring  those  foreigners  into  his  empire."  "  By  Allah," 
they  exclaimed,  "  he  means  the  Rayas."  They  believed  that  the 
Sultan  would  send  a  general  to  arm  and  lead  the  Servians  under 
their  Kneses  against  them.  They  resolved  to  prevent  this  by  a 
massacre  of  all  such  Rayas  as,  from  their  position  or  spirit,  might 
prove  dangerous.  Each  Dahi  repaired  for  this  purpose  to  his  own 
district,  and  in  February,  1804,  they  simultaneously  commenced  the 
work  of  horror.  Great  numbers  of  the  chief  Servians  were  at  first 
surprised  and  slaughtered,  but  some  received  timely  warning  and 
fled.  The  Dahis  and  their  emissaries  continued  to  murder,  and  the 
belief  grew  general  in  Servia  that  it  was  intended  to  extirpate  the 
entire  Christian  population.  But  there  were  still  bold  and  able  men 
among  them,  and  too  high  a  military  spirit  had  been  created  by  re- 
cent events  in  the  Servian  Rayas  for  them  to  perish  without 
resistance.  At  first  the  shepherds  and  peasants,  who  lied  from  their 
homes  and  joined  the  Heiduks,  or  robbers,  in  the  mountains,  did  so 
merely  to  save  their  lives  or  to  gain  a  chance  of  taking  life  for  life. 
Their  next  thought  w^as  how  they  could  return  to  their  homes  in 
safety.  But  soon  came  the  reflection  that,  in  order  to  be  safe,  they 
must  put  down  their  oppressors,  and  that  this  could  only  be  done 
by  a  national  war  throughout  the  country.  Such  a  war  was  soon 
organized  in  Servia.  The  Heiduk  chiefs  came  forward  zealously 
in  the  good  cause,  and  there  were  many  other  men  of  capacity  and 
courage  who  combined  the  peasantry  of  the  various  districts  in  a 
general  rising.  The  bands  of  the  Dahis  were  rapidly  driven  from 
the  open  country,  from  the  villages,  and  from  all  the  smaller  towns ; 
and  in  a  few  weeks  all  Servia  was  in  the  hands  of  Servians,  except 
Belgrade  and  some  of  the  other  strong  fortified  places. 

The  Servians  now  determined  to  choose  a  commander-in-chief 
of  their  nation.  They  offered  the  supreme  dignity  to  George 
Petrovich,  called  Czerny  George  by  his  countrymen,  and  Kara 
George  (both  meaning  Black  George)  by  the  Turks.  The  name  of 
Kara  George  is  that  by  which  he  is  most  conspicuous  among  the 
heroes  of  revolutionary  warfare. 

Kara  George  ■'  was  the  son  of  a  Servian  peasant,  and  was  born 
at  Vischessi  between  1760  and  1770.  lie  served  in  the  corps  of 
Servian  volunteers  against  tlie  1\n-ks  in  tlie  Austrian  war  of 
1788-1791,  and  after  the  I'eacc  of  Sistova  he  was  for  some  years  a 

•"It  will  be  noted  that  the  present   Kintj  of  Servi.'i  i-  a  de-condant  of  Kara 
George. 


390  TURKEY 

1804 

dealer  in  swine,  one  of  the  most  profitable  and  respectable  employ- 
ments in  Servia.  When  the  Dahis  began  their  outrages  Kara 
George  left  his  forests  and  swine-droves  and  betook  himself  to  the 
mountains,  where  he  became  one  of  the  most  redoubtable  of  the 
Heiduks.  When  the  war  of  independence  broke  out  he  showed 
himself  as  eminent  for  skill  in  command  as  for  personal  bravery  in 
action.  He  despised  pomp  and  parade,  and  in  the  days  of  his  high- 
est prosperity,  when  sovereign  of  Servia,  and  of  more  than  Servia, 
he  was  always  seen  in  his  old  herdsman's  garb  and  his  well-known 
black  cap.  He  was  in  general  kindly  disposed,  but  was  easily  irri- 
tated, and  was  terrible  in  his  wrath.  He  would  cut  down  or  shoot 
the  offender  with  his  own  hand ;  and  he  made  no  distinction  between 
friend  and  foe,  between  stranger  and  kinsman.  But,  though  cruel, 
he  was  not  vindictive,  and  if  he  could  be  brought  once  to  promise 
forgiveness,  he  pardoned  with  the  heart  as  well  as  w^ith  the  lip. 

Kara  George  knew  the  fierceness  of  his  own  character,  and  so 
did  the  Servian  people  before  they  chose  him  to  rule  over  them. 
When  he  was  proposed  in  the  assembly,  he  at  first  excused  himself 
on  the  ground  that  he  did  not  know  how  to  govern.  The  Kneses 
replied  that  they  would  give  him  counsel.  He  then  said,  "  I  am  too 
hasty  of  mood  for  the  office.  I  cannot  stop  to  take  counsel.  I  shall 
be  inclined  to  kill  at  once."  They  answered  that  "  such  severity  was 
needed  at  that  time." 

It  w-as  not  in  a  single  year  that  the  liberation  of  Servia  was 
accomplished.  The  Dahis  had  been  surprised  and  driven  out  of 
the  open  country  at  the  first  uprising  of  the  patriots,  but  they  were 
not  thoroughly  overcome  without  a  formidable  struggle.  They 
called  to  their  aid  their  confederate  AH  Beg  of  Bosnia ;  and  they 
enrolled  among  their  supporters  many  of  the  bands  called  Krid- 
shalies,  formed  of  adventurers  of  every  description,  creed,  and 
class,  who  had  fought  in  the  late  wars,  and  who  were  leagued 
together,  like  the  Free  Companies  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Servians  received  help  from  an  unex- 
pected ally.  The  Pasha  of  Bosnia  came  to  their  assistance  with  the 
Sultan's  forces  from  that  province,  and  Turkish  recruits  appeared 
in  the  Servian  camp.  The  Porte  was  now  firmly  resolved  that  the 
Janissaries  of  Belgrade,  as  the  most  turbulent  of  that  turbulent 
body,  should,  if  possible,  be  crushed;  and  the  arms  of  the  Servians 
were  to  be  employed,  together  with  those  of  loyal  r^Iohammedans. 
for  that  purpose.    The  union  was  again  successful ;  but  the  Servians 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  391 

1804 

this  time  insisted  that  the  destruction  of  their  tyrants  should  be 
made  sure.  The  Dahis  and  their  followers  were  not  to  be  exiled, 
they  were  to  be  slain.  The  Pasha  felt  little  anxiety  to  interpose  in 
their  favor.  Such  as  could  not  escape  to  Pasvan  Oglu  were  cut 
down  without  mercy,  and  the  heads  of  the  four  Dahis  were  dis- 
played in  the  Servian  camp.  The  Pasha  now  pronounced  the  object 
of  the  war  to  be  gained.  The  rebellious  enemies  of  the  Sultan  had 
been  punished,  and  the  old  order  of  submission  by  Rayas  to  Turks 
was  to  be  restored.  He  directed  the  Servians  to  disarm,  and  return 
to  their  flocks  and  herds.  But  the  command  w'as  issued  not  to  spirit- 
less and  powerless  Rayas,  like  those  of  the  olden  time,  among  whom 
humility  before  the  Moslems  had  become  a  second  nature,  but  to 
practiced  and  victorious  soldiers,  v»'ho  had  fought  and  beaten  the 
most  renowned  of  the  old  Ottoman  troops,  who  had  stormed  Turk- 
ish fortresses  and  had  torn  down  Alohammedan  standards.  The 
Servians  regarded  as  their  real  chiefs,  not  the  Pashas  and  the 
Spahis,  but  Kara  George  and  the  other  leaders  of  their  own  race 
and  creed — men  who  had  shared  in  the  extremity  of  the  land's  dis- 
tress, and  had  been  foremost  in  fighting  their  way  out  of  it.  These 
were  the  commanders  whose  words  alone  were  heeded,  and  their 
words  were  not  words  of  submissiveness.  The  Servian  chiefs  were 
men  who  had  created  their  own  strength  and  power;  they  were  sur- 
rounded each  by  his  band  of  resolute  partisans,  called  Momkes, 
ready  for  any  service;  and  they  were  not  disposed  to  resign  the 
pleasure  of  commanding,  which  they  so  recently  had  enjoyed.  The 
original  objects  of  the  uprising  of  Servia  had  been  merely  to  rihtain 
protection  for  life  and  honor  against  the  bloodthirsty  and  ])rutal 
Dahis;  but  in  the  course  of  that  struggle  a  national  feeling  had 
been  evoked,  and  a  national  power  evolved,  which  made  it  inijiossi- 
ble  that  Servia  should  not  now  aspire  to  a  higher  destiny  than  she 
had  known  since  Sultan  ^Murad  II.  overthrew  the  Prince  C.eorge 
Brankovich  and  his  Christian  confederates  at  Varna. 

The  struggle  which  the  Servians  had  hitherto  maintained 
against  the  Sultan's  Mohammedan  rebels  was  now  to  be  continued 
against  the  Sultan  himself.  They  determined  to  seek  the  aid  of 
one  of  the  great  powers  of  Christendom.  Austria  was  tirst  thought 
of.  Many  of  them  had  fought  under  her  l>anncr,  and  many  of  their 
kindred  tribes  were  already  under  the  sovereignty  of  th.e  Kaiser  ot 
'Vienna.  But  it  was  rememberctl  that  the  Austrians.  ihougli  they 
had  more  than  once  occupied   Servia,  liatl  always  given  l)ack  the 


392  TURKEY 

1804-1805 

country  and  the  people  to  the  Turks.  Moreover,  Austria  was 
known  to  be  now  directing  all  her  energies  to  the  conflict  which  was 
approaching  on  her  western  frontiers  between  her  and  the  French, 
by  whom  she  had  been  twice  humbled  during  the  last  few  years. 
But  there  was  another  great  Christian  empire  near  Servia.  Russia 
was  strong  and  active,  and  undefeated  by  either  Turks  or  French, 
both  of  whom  her  famous  general,  Suvarov,  had  repeatedly  van- 
quished. The  Russians,  moreover,  were,  like  the  Servians,  Chris- 
tians of  the  Greek  Church,  and  they  had  shown  their  zeal  for  their 
coreligionists  by  their  repeated  and  formidable  intercessions  with 
the  Porte  in  behalf  of  the  Moldavians  and  Wallachians.  The  Ser- 
vians accordingly,  in  August,  1804,  sent  a  deputation  to  St.  Peters- 
burg, which  returned  in  February,  1805,  with  a  favorable  answer. 
But  the  Russian  emperor  advised  the  Servians  first  to  prefer  their 
requests  at  Constantinople,  promising  to  support  them  by  all  his 
influence  with  the  Sultan, 

The  Servians,  in  obedience  to  this  direction,  sent,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1805,  an  embassy  to  Constantinople,  which  was  instructed  to 
demand  that  in  future  all  the  fortresses  of  their  country  should  be 
garrisoned  by  Servian  troops,  and  that,  in  consideration  of  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  province  during  the  recent  troubles,  all  arrears  of 
taxes  and  tribute  should  be  remitted.  The  first  article  was  the  most 
important,  and  the  one  respecting  which  most  difficulty  was  antici- 
pated, especially  as  at  the  time  when  it  was  preferred  Belgrade  and 
other  strong  places  in  Servia  were  still  in  the  power  of  the  Moslems. 

The  period  when  these  demands  were  laid  before  the  Porte  was 
an  important  crisis  in  Selim's  reign.  The  rival  influences  of  France 
and  Russia  in  the  Divan,  and  also  the  conflicting  spirits  of  reform 
and  conservatism  in  the  Ottoman  nation,  were  now  engaged  in  a 
trial  of  strength  with  which  the  Servian  question  became  closely 
connected, 

Russia  was  at  this  time  at  war  with  France,  and  was  redoubling 
the  efforts  which  she  had  been  making  for  several  years  to  gain  such 
a  paramount  authority  in  Turkey  as  should  render  the  populations 
and  resources  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  subservient  to  the  Czar's 
schemes  of  aggrandizement  against  his  Western  enemies,  as  well  as 
in  the  Eastern  world.  Selim  had  made  large  concessions  to  Russia 
since  they  had  become  allies  in  1798,  concessions  which  the  Turkish 
nation  viewed  with  anger  and  alarm.  Her  fleets  had  been  permitted 
to  pass  and  repass  the  Bosphorus  and  the  Dardanelles,  after  as  well 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  393 

1804-1805 

as  before  the  general  pacification  in  1801.  This  had  caused  great 
indignation  among  the  Turks  in  Constantinople,  and  the  Sultan  had 
been  obliged  to  declare  that  such  permission  should  not  be  repeated 
if  Russia  were  at  war  with  any  nation  friendly  to  the  Porte.  By 
means  of  the  squadrons  which  she  thus  sent  from  the  Black  Sea  to 
the  Adriatic,  Russia  had  largely  increased  her  force  in  the  Ionian 
Islands,  and  she  further  augmented  that  force  by  levying  troops 
among  the  Albanians  of  the  mainland,  notwithstanding  the  remon- 
strances of  the  Turkish  authorities.  We  have  already  noticed  her 
successful  claims  regarding  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  in  1802;  and 
in  the  early  part  of  1805  the  influence  of  Russia  over  the  Sultan  was 
still  more  strikingly  displayed  on  the  southeastern  coasts  of  the 
Black  Sea.  The  Porte  consented  that  the  Russians  should  have  the 
free  navigation  of  the  River  Phasis  in  Mingrelia,  and  erect  fort- 
resses and  place  garrisons  on  its  banks  for  the  better  security  of 
their  flotillas.  The  Pasha  of  Erzerum  was  ordered  to  assist  the 
Russians  in  establishing  these  posts,  and  in  any  other  operations 
that  might  be  of  use  to  them,  for  the  purposes  of  the  war  with 
Persia,  in  which  Russia  was  then  engaged. 

The  Russians  took  more  than  full  advantage  of  this  permission 
by  occupying  districts  at  some  distance  from  the  Phasis,  seizing  the 
fortress  of  Anakria,  and  building  another  on  the  coast  of  the  Black 
Sea.  At  last,  when  Russia  was  about  to  join  Austria  and  England 
against  Napoleon  in  1805,  her  ambassador,  Italinski,  formally 
declared  to  the  Reis  Effendi  that  his  government  found  it  necessary, 
owing  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe,  to  require  that  Turkey 
should  forthwith  enter  into  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with 
Russia;  that  all  the  subjects  of  the  Sultan  who  professed  the  faith 
of  the  Greek  Church  should  thenceforth  be  considered  t(i  be  under 
the  protection  of  the  Emperor  of  Russia,  and  that  whenever  ihey 
were  molested  by  the  Turks  the  Porte  should  be  ])ound  to  do  right 
upon  the  representations  of  the  Russian  ambassador.  These  requi- 
sitions of  Italinski  were  made  at  the  same  time  that  the  demands 
of  the  Servian  deputation  were  laid  before  ihc  Sultan  on  the 
avowed  recommendation  of  Russia. 

The  Turkish  ministers  succeeded  in  gaining  time  in  their  con- 
ferences with  Italinski,  but  it  was  necessary  to  come  to  a  prompt 
decision  as  to  what  line  the  Porte  shotild  follow  in  dealing  with  the 
Servians.  There  were  strong  inducements  to  endeavor  to  win  their 
loval  devotion  to  the  Sultan  bv  a  frank  concession  of  their  wishes. 


394  TURKEY 

1805 

Selim  had  now  made  considerable  progress  in  his  military  reforms. 
The  Topidjis  (the  artillerymen)  had  been  trained  to  a  promising 
extent  by  French  officers,  and  they  were  placed  on  a  footing  superior 
to  that  of  the  Janissaries.  Omar  Aga's  little  corps,  which  had 
acquired  so  much  credit  in  the  defense  of  Acre,  had  further  signal- 
ized itself  by  destroying  some  formidable  bands  of  brigands  or  free 
companions  which  had  ravaged  Bulgaria  and  Rumelia  and  de- 
feated the  Janissaries  whom  the  Pashas  of  those  provinces  led 
against  them.  Selim  increased  the  number  of  new  troops.  Two 
regiments  of  the  Nizam  Djidites,  uniformly  armed  and  accoutered 
after  the  most  approved  French  models,  were  now  seen  performing 
the  same  evolutions  as  those  of  the  best  European  troops.  Special 
funds  were  provided  for  their  pay;  a  few  of  the  Pashas — especially 
Abdurrahman  of  Karaman — adopted  zealously  their  Sultan's 
views,  and  in  1805  Selim  ventured  on  the  bold  measure  of  issuing  a 
decree  that  in  future  the  strongest  and  finest  young  men  should  be 
.selected  from  among  the  Janissaries  and  other  corps  in  the  empire, 
for  the  purpose  of  serving  in  the  Nizam  Djidid.® 

This  was  at  the  time  when  the  power  of  the  Janissaries  in 
Belgrade  had  been  broken  by  the  Rayas ;  but  in  other  parts  of  the 
empire  they  gave  terrible  proofs  of  their  strength.  At  Adrianople 
they  gathered  together  in  resistance  to  the  Sultan's  edict  to  the  num- 
ber of  10,000.  A  Cadi  who  endeavored  to  enforce  the  royal  orders 
was  seized  by  them  and  strangled,  and  in  the  greater  part  of  the 
empire  it  was  found  impossible,  at  least  for  the  present,  to  carry 
out  the  reforms  which  had  been  decreed.  The  services  of  a  brave 
and  well-armed  Raya  like  the  Servian  would  have  been  invaluable 
to  Selim  if  he  could  have  been  sure  that  they  would  have  loyally 
preferred  the  cause  of  the  Sultan  to  that  of  Russia,  and  if  he  could 
have  employed  them  against  the  Janissaries  of  Adrianople  and  the 
capital  without  raising  in  rebellion  the  great  mass  of  his  ]Moham- 
medan  subjects,  already  deeply  incensed  at  the  means  which  had  been 
used  against  the  Dahis  of  Belgrade.  Threatened  as  Selim  was  at 
this  very  time  by  Russia,  and  in  hourly  expectation  of  being  obliged 
to  appeal  to  the  fanatic  energy  of  the  ]\Ioslem  population  of  his 
empire  for  a  final  efi^ort  of  despair  against  the  invading  Giaours, 
he  abandoned  the  thought  of  winning  the  friendship  of  the  Servian 
Rayas,  and  determined  to  treat  them  as  foes  whom  he  must  deprive 
of  the  means  of  injuring  him.      The  Servian  deputies  at  Constan- 

*^  Ranke's  '■Serviii,"  p.   151. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  395 

1806 

tinople  were  arrested,  and  Afiz,  the  Pasha  of  Nish,  was  ordered  to 
enter  Servia  and  disarm  the  Rayas.  Kara  George  met  him  at  the 
frontier  of  the  province  and  defeated  him,  and  when  in  1806  Servia 
was  attacked  by  two  of  the  Sultan's  armies  on  different  sides  of  tlie 
province,  the  Servians  (who  had  now  become  altogether  a  warlike 
people,  every  man  bearing  arms)  defended  themselves  heroically. 
They  drove  back  their  invaders  with  heavy  loss,  and  by  capturing 
Belgrade  and  the  other  fortresses  which  had  hitherto  been  gar- 
risoned by  Turks,  they  made  themselves  completely  masters  of  their 
own  country.  The  generalship  displayed  by  Kara  George  during 
this  campaign  was  of  the  very  highest  order.  Under  him  Servia, 
in  1806,  completed  her  independence  w-ithout  foreign  interference 
and  by  the  weapons  of  her  own  sons  alone.  But  before  another 
year's  warfare  commenced  she  obtained  important  assistance 
through  the  outbreak  of  avowed  hostilities  between  Russia  and  the 
Porte. 

While  the  Russian  ambassador,  Italinski,  had  pressed  the  Porte 
with  demands  which,  if  complied  with,  would  have  made  the  Sultan 
the  mere  vassal  of  the  emperor,  the  French  minister  had  l>een 
equally  earnest  in  encouraging  Selim  to  resist,  and  in  endeavoring 
to  induce  him  to  acknowledge  Napoleon  as  Padishah,  or  Emperor 
of  France.  The  British  ambassador,  as  well  as  the  Russian, 
strongly  opposed  this  recognition  of  their  great  enemy  by  his  new 
imperial  title,  and  war  was  plainly  threatened  by  botli  tliese  powers 
in  the  event  of  any  closer  connection  being  formed  between  I'rance 
and  Turkey.  The  successes  gained  by  Napoleon  over  the  Austrians 
and  Russians  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of  1805  materially  aug- 
mented the  inlluence  of  the  Frencli  minister  at  Constantinople  and 
diminished  the  dread  with  which  Russia  was  regarded.  The  effect 
of  the  French  victories  round  Ulm  and  in  Moravia  was  practically 
felt  in  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Bosphorus.  A  cori)s  of  15.000  Rus- 
sians which  had  been  collected  at  Sebast(jpol  to  overawe  or  attack 
Turkey  w'as  withdrawn  into  central  Russia,  to  replace  the  troops 
which  it  was  necessary  to  march  westward  against  the  advancing 
French. 

Italinski  grew  more  moderate  in  his  tlcniands  on  the  Porte, 
which  were  heard  with  increasing  indifference,  while  those  of 
France  were  listened  to  with  more  and  more  attention. 

The  Treaty  of  Presburg,  by  wliich  Xapuleon  on  December 
26,    1805,   triumpliantly   concluded   hi-^    war   with    Austria,    trans- 


396  TURKEY 

1806 

ferred  to  the  French  sovereign,  among  other  territories,  Dal- 
matia  and  part  of  Croatia;  so  that  the  French  were  now  in  contact 
with  the  Ottoman  Empire.  Napoleon  is  said  to  have  made  it  a 
point  of  primary  importance  thus  to  advance  his  dominions  to  the 
frontier  of  Turkey,  and  acquire  the  means  of  keeping  a  force  ever 
ready  to  act  promptly  and  effectively,  either  in  supporting  Turkey 
or  in  seizing  on  a  share  of  her  provinces,  as  circumstances  might 
make  it  expedient.  A  copy  of  the  Treaty  of  Presburg  was  promptly 
laid  before  the  Grand  Vizer  by  Ruffin,  the  French  minister,  who 
dilated  on  tlie  advantage  which  it  would  be  to  the  Sultan  to  se- 
cure the  friendship  of  the  great  conqueror  w^ho  had  now  become  his 
neighbor.  The  efifect  of  this  was  speedily  displayed  in  a  hatti- 
slierif  by  which  the  titles  of  Emperor  and  Padishah  were  solemnly 
given  to  the  ruler  of  the  French,  and  when  in  the  summer  of  1806 
General  Sebastiani  arrived  at  Constantinople  as  an  ambassador  ex- 
traordinary from  Napoleon  to  Selim,  that  able  military  diplomatist 
persuaded  the  Sultan  to  take  measures  which  w^re  almost  certain  to 
lead  to  a  war  between  Turkey  and  Russia.  Such  a  war  was  then 
most  desirable  for  Napoleon's  purposes,  as  it  w^as  calculated  to  make 
an  important  diversion  of  part  of  the  Russian  forces  from  the  great 
scene  of  conflict  in  Prussian  Poland,  where  the  Emperor  Alexander 
was  striving  to  support  King  Frederick  William  of  Prussia  against 
the  armies  of  victorious  France. 

At  Sebastiani's  instigation  the  Sultan  deposed  the  Hospodars 
of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  Prince  Morutzi  and  Prince  Ipsilanti, 
who  were  more  than  suspected  of  being  the  pensioned  agents  of  the 
Russian  court.  This  dismissal  of  the  Hospodars  without  any  pre- 
vious notification  to  St.  Petersburg  was  a  violation  of  the  pledge 
given  in  the  hattisherif  of  1802,  and  the  Russian  ambassador  at 
Constantinople  protested  angrily  against  it.  He  was  joined  in  his 
remonstrances  by  the  ambassador  of  England,  and  they  informed 
the  Porte  that  "the  armies  and  fleets  of  the  allies  w^ere  about  to 
receive  a  new  impulse."  This  meant  that  a  Russian  army  would  be 
marched  into  Moldavia,  and  that  an  English  fleet  would  sail  against 
Constantinople.'^  Selim  offered  to  repair  the  breach  of  his  engage- 
ment respecting  the  government  of  the  principalities,  and  an  order 
w^as  issued  to  reinstate  Morutzi  and  Ipsilanti  as  Hospodars.  But 
before  this  could  be  accomplished  the  tidings  reached  Constantinople 
that  Russian  troops  had  entered  Moldavia  and  advanced  as  far  as 
♦  Lord  Broughton's  "  Travels,"  vol.  ii,  p.  390. 


1807 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  397 


Jassy.  The  Emperor  Alexander  had  promptly  seized  on  the  pretext 
which  the  intelhgence  of  the  dismissal  of  the  Hospodars  gave  him 
for  an  attack  upon  Turkey,  and  35,000  men  under  General  Michel- 
son  were  ordered  into  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  without  even  the 
formality  of  a  declaration  of  war.  The  Russians  speedily  overran 
the  principalities  and  beat  back  the  scanty  forces 'with  which  tlie 
Turkish  commanders  of  the  neighboring  Pashalics  had  endeavored 
to  check  their  progress.  On  December  27  Michelson  entered 
Bucharest,  and  it  was  announced  that  his  troops  would  speedily 
cross  the  Danube. 

A  declaration  of  war  by  the  Sublime  Porte  against  Russia  was 
the  natural  and  inevitable  result  of  the  indignation  which  these 
things  excited  at  Constantinople ;  nor  was  the  Turkish  Government 
awed  into  submission  by  the  threats  of  the  British  minister, 
Arbuthnot,  who  required  that  the  Porte  sliould  instantly  renew  its 
alliance  with  Russia  and  England  and  dismiss  tlie  ambassador  of 
France,  and  who  menaced  Turkey  with  an  attack  by  the  combined 
English  and  Russian  fleets,  as  well  as  by  the  Russian  armies,  in  case 
of  non-compliance  with  his  demands.  The  Reis  Effendi  returned 
an  answer  of  much  sense  and  dignity,  in  which  he  recapitulated  the 
exertions  which  Turkey  had  made  to  preserve  peace,  and  csi)ecially 
alluded  to  the  late  humiliation  which  Sultan  Sclim  had  voluntarily 
undergone  in  reinstating  the  two  traitorous  Hospodars.  He  staterl 
that  in  making  war  with  Russia  after  her  attack  on  Turkish  prov- 
inces and  Turkish  troops,  the  Sultan  was  only  repelling  force  by 
force.  Pie  expressed  a  hope  that  a  great  and  enlightened  nation  like 
the  British  would  appreciate  the  sacrifices  which  the  Sublime  Poric 
had  made  for  the  sake  of  amity,  and  the  spirit  which  now  made  it 
act  in  self-defense. 

On  receiving  this  reply  the  English  minister  repaired  to  the 
fleet  that  was  then  moored  off  Tenedos.  under  the  command  of 
Admiral  Duckworth.  The  admiral's  instructions  were  to  i)rocced 
forthwith  to  Constantinople  and  to  insist  on  the  surrender  of  the 
Turkish  fleet,  or  to  burn  it  and  bombard  tbc  town.  On  l-Vbruary 
19,  1807,  the  fleet,  consisting  of  seven  .-liips  of  the  line  and 
two  frigates,  favored  by  a  strong  wind  from  the  south,  sailed 
through  the  formidable  straits  of  the  Dardanelles  with  little  or  no 
loss.  A  Turkish  scjuadron  of  one  sixty-tour  gun  ship,  foiu"  frigates, 
and  some  corvettes  that  lay  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora  was  de>; roved 
by  the  English;  and,  if  Constantinople  had  been  promptly  assailed, 


398  TURKEY 

1807-1812 

it  could  not  have  been  defended  with  any  prospect  of  success,  so 
defective  were  the  fortifications  and  such  was  the  panic  caused  by 
the  forcing  of  the  straits.  But  the  English  wasted  time  in  negotia- 
tions, while  the  Turks,  roused  from  their  temporary  consternation, 
and  excited  and  directed  by  Sultan  Selim  and  General  Sebastiani, 
labored  energetically  at  the  defenses  of  the  capital,  until  the  English 
commander  became  convinced  that  it  would  be  impracticable  for 
him  to  make  any  impression  on  them.  Accordingly,  the  English 
fleet  withdrew  from  the  Sea  of  Marmora  and  on  March  3  re- 
passed the  Dardanelles,  but  not  without  a  dangerous  contest  and 
severe  loss.  The  Turks  on  the  first  occasion  had  been  negligent, 
surprised,  and  dismayed.  They  were  now  well-armed  and  pre- 
pared. Under  the  direction  of  French  engineers,  whom  Sebastiani 
had  sent  down  from  the  capital,  they  had  repaired  the  old  batteries 
and  erected  new  ones.  Even  the  huge  granite-shooting  guns  that 
had  lain  inactive  opposite  each  other  on  the  European  and  Asiatic 
shores  for  centuries  were  now  employed,  and  with  no  inconsiderable 
effect.  Several  of  the  English  ships  were  struck  and  seriously 
injured  by  the  800-pound  globes  of  stone  which  these  cannon  dis- 
charged. 

An  English  expedition  against  Egypt  was  undertaken  almost 
immediately  after  that  against  Constantinople,  and  was  still  more 
unsuccessful.  A  small  British  force,  utterly  inadequate  for  such 
an  enterprise,  was  landed  near  Alexandria.  It  occupied  that  city, 
and  endeavored  also  to  reduce  Rosetta,  but  was  ultimately  obliged 
to  retire  from  Egypt  after  much  loss  both  of  men  and  reputation. 

In  the  Archipelago  a  Russian  squadron  under  Admiral  Siniavin 
gained  some  advantage  over  the  Turkish  fleet,  but  the  Turkish 
Capudan  Pasha  was  able  to  retire  into  the  Dardanelles  and  protect 
the  capital,  and  altogether  in  the  South  the  fortune  of  the  war  in 
1807  was  not  unfavorable  to  the  Ottomans.  In  the  North  the  Rus- 
sian and  Turkish  forces  on  the  Danube  carried  on  the  contest  with- 
out either  side  gaining  a  decided  superiority  over  the  other.  Indeed, 
the  war  which  began  at  the  close  of  1806  and  was  terminated  by  the 
Treaty  of  Bucharest  in  181 2,  is,  of  all  the  struggles  between  Turkey 
and  Russia,  the  least  interesting  and  the  least  important.  Neither 
party  put  forth  its  full  strength  against  the  other.  Hostilities  were 
suspended  for  a  considerable  time  by  the  truce  of  Slobosia;  and, 
even  while  they  were  being  carried  on,  Russia  was  obliged  to  employ 
her  chief  force  either  to  combat  or  to  watch  a  far  more  formidable 


1807 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  399 


enemy.  She  had  only  the  use  of  her  left  hand  against  the  Turk.  On 
the  Ottoman  side  the  revolts,  the  civil  wars,  and  the  revolutions  of 
this  period  were  almost  incessant.  At  the  commencement  of  hos- 
tilities the  Pasha  of  Karaman  (who  was  a  partisan  of  Sultan  Selim's 
reforms)  while  leading  a  force,  trained  on  the  new  model,  toward 
the  seat  of  war  on  the  Danube,  was  intercepted  at  Babaeska  on  the 
Yena  by  a  large  force  of  Janissaries  and  other  troops  opposed  to  the 
change  of  system.  A  battle  ensued,  in  which  the  Karamanians 
were  utterly  defeated. 

It  was  evident  that  Selim  was  the  weakest  in  the  balance  of 
physical  power  between  himself  and  his  malcontent  subjects,  and 
that  a  decisive  struggle  was  fast  approaching.  The  death  (early  in 
1807)  of  the  Mufti,  who  had  been  a  devoted  friend  to  Selim,  and 
had  aided  in  all  his  undertakings,  was  a  heavy  blow  to  the  Sultan. 
The  Ulema,  as  a  body,  were  most  inimical  to  his  reforms,  and  their 
new  chief  entered  into  an  active  alliance  with  the  leading  Janissaries 
against  the  throne.  But  the  individual  who  did  most  to  overthrow 
Selim  was  the  Kaimakan,  Musa  Pasha.  This  man  had,  during 
twenty  years  of  court  intrigue,  been  the  seemingly  meek  instrument 
of  the  ambition  of  others,  and  was  generally  despised  as  a  submis- 
sive drudge  of  office.  Selim  gave  Musa  Pasha  the  important  office 
of  Kaimakan,  in  the  hope  that  its  real  powers  would  be  dormant  in 
his  hands,  and  that  he  would  be  abundantly  content  with  the  mere 
pageantry  of  high  station.  ]\Iusa  used  the  opportunity  of  his  office 
to  instigate  the  mutinous  spirit  of  the  Janissaries  and  other  mal- 
contents, while  he  at  the  same  time  retained  the  confidence  of  the 
Sultan  by  the  outward  show  of  simple-minded  loyalty.  An  order 
that  was  given  by  Selim  in  ]\Iay  (not  much  more  than  two  months 
after  the  departure  of  the  English  fleet)  for  some  changes  in  the 
equipment  of  the  garrison  of  the  forts  on  the  Bcjsplidrus.  was  the 
immediate  signal  for  the  fatal  revolt.  The  garrison  mutinied,  and 
the  Janissaries  of  the  capital,  who  were  in  cooperation  with  them, 
repaired  to  the  Etmeidan  (the  headquarters  of  Janissary  sedition  for 
centuries),  and  there  overturned  their  camp-kettles,  in  token  that 
they  would  no  longer  accept  food  from  Sultan  Selim.  Under  the 
influence  and  on  the  lying  assurance  of  the  traitorous  Kaimakan 
the  Sultan  tried  to  api)easc  the  storm  1)y  concession,  and  by  the 
sacrifice  of  his  best  ministers,  instead  of  sending  for  his  new  troops 
who  were  near  the  ca])ital  and  defending  the  seraglio  with  his  body- 
guard until  their  arrival.      The  natural  result  was  a  resolution  (if 


400  TURKEY 

1807 

the  mutineers  to  depose  their  sovereign.  They  obtained  a  fetwah 
from  the  Mufti  sanctioning  their  proceedings;  and,  headed  by  the 
traitor  Musa,  who  now  threw  off  tlie  mask,  the  Janissaries  forced 
their  way  into  the  palace  and  placed  Mustapha,  the  eldest  son  of  the 
late  Sultan  Abdul  Ilamid,  on  the  throne,  Selim  retired  with 
dignity  to  the  prison  apartments,  and  there  employed  the  brief 
remainder  of  his  life,  not  vainly,  in  instructing  his  young  cousin, 
Prince  Mahmud,  afterward  Sultan  Mahmud  II,,  how  to  rule  the 
empire,  and  in  holding  out  his  own  fate  as  a  warning  against  the 
weakness  which  the  Sultan  who  would  reform  Turkey  must  dis- 
card in  order  to  save  both  her  and  himself. 

Mustapha  IV,,  whom  the  Janissaries  and  their  accomplices  then 
made  Padishah  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  (May  29,  1807),  was  at 
this  time  about  thirty  years  old.  He  was  a  prince  of  imperfect 
education  and  slender  capacity.  During  the  few  months  in  which 
he  was  the  titular  sovereign  of  Turkey  the  armed  multitude  who 
had  appointed  him  were  its  real  rulers.  But  the  deposed  Sultan  had 
friends,  and  a  bold  effort  to  restore  or  at  least  to  avenge  him  was 
speedily  and  sternly  made.  The  Pasha  of  Rustchuk,  Mustapha 
Bairactar,  ow^ed  his  elevation  to  Selim,  and  as  soon  as  the  truce  of 
Slobosia  with  the  Russians  (August,  1807)  enabled  him  to  move 
his  forces  from  the  frontier,  Bairactar  marched  upon  Constan- 
tinople, At  the  end  of  1807  he  was  at  the  head  of  40,000  soldiers, 
chiefly  Bosnians  and  Albanians,  who  were  encamped  on  the  plains 
of  Daud,  about  four  miles  from  the  capital.  He  summoned  to  his 
camp  many  of  the  chief  men  of  the  empire,  who  assembled  at  his 
bidding  and  swore  to  aid  in  abolishing  the  Janissaries  and  in 
restoring  good  government  to  the  empire.  Sultan  Mustapha  re- 
mained in  his  palace,  little  heeded  and  little  honored,  even  in 
semblance,  for  a  space  of  six  months,  during  which  Mustapha  Bair- 
actar, from  his  tent  on  the  plains  of  Daud,  exercised  the  chief 
authority  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  At  length  he  led  his  Albanians 
to  the  capital  itself,  w^ith  the  design  of  dethroning  Mustapha. 
and  reinstating  Selim  III.  The  adherents  of  Mustapha  (or 
rather  the  partisans  of  the  Janissaries  and  the  Ulema)  closed  the 
gates  of  the  Serail  against  him,  Bairactar  had  brought  with  him 
from  the  headquarters  of  the  army  of  the  Danube  the  sacred  stand- 
ard of  Mohammed,  Pie  unfurled  this  before  the  Serail,  and 
demanded  that  the  gates  should  be  opened  to  admit  him  and  his 
brave  soldiers,  who  were  bringing  back  the  holy  banner  from  the 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  401 

1808 

wars.  The  chief  of  the  Bostancljis  replied  from  the  wall  that  the 
gates  could  not  be  opened  but  by  command  of  Sultan  Mustapha. 
"  Talk  not  of  Sultan  Mustapha,"  shouted  Bairactar  with  fury;  "  let 
us  see  Sultan  Selim,  our  Padishah  and  thine,  false  slave."  He 
gave  orders  for  an  immediate  assault ;  an  entrance  into  the  palace 
was  soon  effected,  but,  brief  as  the  delay  was,  it  proved  fatal  to 
Selim.  On  hearing  the  demand  of  Bairactar,  Mustapha  ordered 
that  Selim  and  his  own  brother,  Mahmud,  should  be  instantly  seized 
and  strangled.  By  their  deaths  he  would  have  been  left  the  sole 
representative  of  the  house  of  Othman,  whom  no  Osmanli  would 
dare  to  destroy  or  depose.  The  executioners  found  and  murdered 
Selim,  though  not  till  after  a  desperate  resistance,  which  was  main- 
tained by  the  unhappy  prince  almost  long  enough  to  save  his  life; 
for  at  the  very  time  when  he  was  expiring  under  the  bowstring  of 
Mustapha's  mutes  Bairactar's  Albanians  had  forced  the  outer  gate. 
As  Bairactar  pressed  forward  to  the  inner  gate  it  was  suddenly 
thrown  open,  and  IMustapha's  eunuchs  cast  the  body  of  Selim  be- 
fore him,  saying,  "  Behold  the  Sultan  whom  ye  seek."  Bairactar 
bent  over  the  corpse  of  his  benefactor  and  wept  bitterly,  but  his 
confederate,  the  Capudan  Pasha,  Seid  Ali,  shook  him  by  the  shoul- 
der and  exclaimed,  "  This  is  the  time  for  vengeance,  not  for  tears." 
Bairactar  roused  himself,  and  they  rushed  into  the  presence- 
chamber,  where  Sultan  Mustapha  had  placed  himself  on  the  throne, 
in  the  hope  of  awing  the  insurgents  by  the  display  of  legitimate 
royalty.  But  Bairactar  dragged  him  down,  exclaiming,  "What 
dost  thou  there?     Yield  that  place  to  a  worthier." 

:Mustapha  had  almost  gained  the  security  of  being  the  last  of 
the  Othman  princes.  The  mutes  and  eunuchs  who  liad  murdered 
Selim  sought  eagerly  after  young  ^Tahmud.  who  had  been  secreted 
by  a  vigilant  and  faithful  slave  in  the  furnace  of  a  bath.  While 
the  ministers  of  death  were  searching  the  very  apartment  in  which 
he  was  hid.  the  shouts  of  the  victorious  .\ll)anians  rang  through  the 
palace,  testimonies  not  only  of  life  ])rescr\C(l.  but  of  royalty  acquired 
for  Mahmud.  Before  the  night  had  closed  in  the  cannon  of  the 
Seraglio  announced  to  the  pcf^^le  of  Constantinoi)]e  tliat  Mustapha 
had  ceased  to  reign,  and  that  Mahmud  II.  was  Padishah  of  the 
Ottoman  world.      (July  28,  1808.) 

Bairactar  assumed  power  as  the  Grand  Vizier  of  the  new 
Sultan,  and  acted  for  a  time  with  vigor  and  success  against  the  party 
that  had  dethroned  Selim.      Musa   Pasha  and  other  traitors  were 


402  TURKEY 

1807-1809 

executed,  and  a  plan  was  commenced  for  superseding  the  Janissaries 
by  a  new  armed  force  under  an  old  name.  The  troops,  whom 
Bairactar  designed  to  arm  and  train  on  the  European  system,  were 
to  be  called  Seymens,  the  title  of  an  ancient  corps  in  the  Ottoman 
service.  The  Vizier's  measures  were  received  with  simulated, 
which  he  mistook  for  real,  submissiveness  by  the  Janissaries  and 
the  Ulema.  In  fatal  confidence  he  dismissed  his  provincial  army, 
retaining  not  more  than  4000  European  soldiers  on  whom  he  could 
rely  in  the  capital,  but  Cadi  Pasha,  who  was  his  friend,  was  en- 
camped near  Scutari  with  8000  Asiatic  troops.  On  the  second  night 
after  the  departure  of  the  Bosnian  and  Albanian  forces  a  large  body 
of  the  Janissaries  surrounded  the  Palace  of  the  Porte,  where  the 
Vizier  resided,  and  set  fire  to  the  building.  Bairactar  escaped  into 
a  stone  tower,  which  was  used  as  a  powder  magazine.  There  he 
defended  himself  desperately,  but,  either  by  accident  or  design,  the 
tower  was  blown  up  and  the  Vizier  perished  before  he  could  collect 
his  adherents  or  communicate  with  Sultan  Mahmud.  The  whole 
Janissary  force  of  the  capital  now  assailed  the  Seymens.  But  these 
were  aided  by  Cadi  Pasha,  who  led  his  8000  Asiatics  across  from 
Scutari  and  commenced  a  furious  engagement  with  the  Janissaries, 
which  raged  for  two  days  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople  with 
varying  fortune.  The  Capudan  Pasha,  Seid  Ali,  cooperated  with 
Cadi  Pasha,  and  caused  a  ship  of  the  line  that  lay  in  the  harbor  to 
fire  repeated  broadsides  upon  the  part  of  the  tower  where  the  Janis- 
saries' barracks  were  situated.  Several  extensive  districts  of  Con- 
stantinople and  immense  magazines  of  military  stores  were  set  on 
fire  during  this  fearful  conflict,  which  was  still  maintained  on  the 
morning  of  ]\Iarch  17,  1809,  when  the  Galiongi  and  the  artillery- 
men, who  had  hitherto  been  neutral,  pronounced  in  favor  of  the 
Janissaries,  and  determined  the  victory.  The  Sultan  and  his  at- 
tendants had  kept  the  palace  gates  closed,  and  the  deposed  Sultan, 
]\Iustapha,  had  been  put  to  death  in  his  apartments  while  the  resul 
of  the  civil  war  in  the  streets  was  still  doubtful.  It  is  uncertain 
Vv'ho  gave  the  order  for  iMustapha's  execution,  but  it  is  certain  that 
if  he  had  been  left  alive  the  victorious  Janissaries  would  have 
restored  him  to  the  throne  and  have  murdered  Mahmud.  As  sole 
scion  of  the  house  of  Othman,  i\Iahmud  knew  that  he  bore  a 
charmed  life.  But  he  was  obliged  to  yield,  at  least  in  appearance, 
to  the  demands  of  the  victors.  An  imperial  edict  was  issued  in  favor 
of  the  Janissaries.     All  the  customs  of  the  Franks   and  all  the  late 


1807 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  403 


innovations  were  solemnly  cursed  and  renounced ;  and  the  old  sys- 
tem, with  all  its  abuses,  seemed  to  be  reestablished  more  firmly  than 
ever.  But  there  were  men  of  judgment  and  action  among  the 
Turks  who  had  seen  all  these  things,  and  who  saw  in  them  only 
the  sterner  proof  of  the  necessity  of  sweeping  changes.  They  were 
obliged  to  think  in  silence,  but  they  were  preparing  themselves  for 
the  time  when  their  thoughts  might  be  embodied  in  deed.  Above 
all,  the  Sultan  himself  watched  from  year  to  year,  as  Murad  IV.  had 
watched  under  not  dissimilar  circumstances,^  for  the  hour  and  the 
means  of  ridding  himself  and  his  country  from  these  worst,  these 
home-oppressors  of  his  race. 

We  must  now  turn  again  to  the  provinces  near  the  Danube 
that  were  the  scenes  of  the  war  between  the  Porte  and  Russia.  No 
great  advantages  had  been  obtained  by  the  forces  of  the  emperor 
over  those  of  the  Sultan,  and  Kara  George,  thougli  victorious  in 
defense  of  Servia,  had  been  unsuccessful  in  an  attem[)t  to  concjuer 
Bosnia,  when,  in  consequence  of  the  Peace  of  Tilsit,  between  Alex- 
ander and  Napoleon  on  June  7,  1807,  the  French  general.  Guille- 
mot, negotiated  a  cessation  of  hostilities  between  the  Turks  and  Rus- 
sians, which  was  agreed  to  at  Slobosia  in  the  August  of  the  same 
year.  One  of  those  terms  of  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit,  which  were  made 
public,  stipulated  that  the  Russians  should  evacuate  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia,  but  that  the  Turks  should  not  reenter  those  provinces 
until  a  peace  between  them  and  the  Emperor  Alexander  was  finally 
arranged.  There  was  a  show  of  attempting  to  make  this  the  basis 
of  a  treaty  at  Slobosia,  but  nothing  was  definitely  settled,  although 
an  armistice  was  agreed  on  in  which  the  Servians  were  included. 
Hostilities  were  in  fact  suspended  for  nearly  two  years,  when  the 
irritation  caused  among  the  Turks  by  the  evident  design  of  l^ussia 
to  retain  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  and  the  behef  that  their  iiUcrests 
had  been  sacrificed  by  the  French  emperor,  led  to  the  renewal  of  the 
war.  It  was  not  without  cause  that  the  sincerity  of  Napoleon's  pnv 
fessions  of  friendship  for  the  Sublime  Porte  was  suspected.  In  the 
interviews  between  him  and  the  Emperor  Alexander,  when  those 
two  great  potentates  dazzled  each  other  with  the  scheme  that  they 
should  form  an  Imperial  Duumvirate  of  the  world,  each  gave  up  his 
weaker  allies.  As  the  'J^-iumvirs  who  divided  the  Roman  world. 
when  they  met  on  the  little  island  on  the  Rhenus,  .sacrificed  each  his 

s  The    account    of    tlic    revolutions    1807-1809   is   chiefly    taken    from    Lord 
Broughton,  and  fron:  Jr.ci'.crcau  St.  Denis. 


w 


404  TURKEY 

1807-1808 

own  friends  to  the  ambition  and  wrath  of  the  others,  so  Alexander 
and  Napoleon,  on  their  raft  on  the  river  Niemen,  sacrificed  friendly 
nations.  Spain  was  to  be  abandoned  to  the  French  emperor  in 
return  for  his  leaving  Turkey  at  the  mercy  of  the  Muscovite.  It 
was  fonnally  provided  by  a  secret  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Tilsit  that 
if  the  Porte  did  not  comply  with  the  private  recommendations  of 
France  and  Russia,  her  European  provinces,  except  Rumelia  and 
Constantinople,  should  be  withdrawn  from  the  vexation  of  Turkish 
government ;  ^  and  it  was  arranged  between  the  tVk^o  emperors  that 
the  provisions  in  the  public  treaty  for  the  evacuation  of  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia  by  the  Russians  should  be  practically  disregarded. 
Afterward  Napoleon,  in  the  negotiations  of  his  ministers  with 
Alexander,  and  in  their  subsequent  interviews  at  Erfurt,  sought  to 
effect  a  dismemberment  of  Turkey,  by  which  some  of  her  best 
provinces  should  fall  to  his  own  share.  Two  plans  w^ere  discussed, 
by  one  of  which  the  Turks  were  to  be  allowed  to  retain  their  Asiatic 
and  part  of  their  European  territories ;  by  the  other,  the  Ottoman 
Empire  was  to  be  almost  annihilated.  The  first  scheme  assigned  to 
Russia  the  Danubian  principalities  and  Bulgaria.  The  Balkan  was 
to  be  the  boundary.  France  was  to  have  Albania,  Greece,  and 
Candia.  Bosnia  and  Servia  were  to  be  transferred  to  the  Austrians, 
as  a  compensation  to  them  for  seeing  the  Russians  established  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Danube.  According  to  the  second  project  Austria 
was  to  be  bribed  by  receiving  not  only  Bosnia  and  Servia,  but  Mace- 
donia also,  except  the  town  and  harbor  of  Saloniki.  France  was  to 
take  (besides  Albania,  Greece,  and  Candia)  all  the  islands  of  the 
Archipelago,  Cyprus.  Syria,  and  Egypt.  Russia's  portion  was  to 
be  Wallachia,  Moldavia,  Bulgaria,  Thrace,  and  the  Asiatic  provinces 
nearest  to  the  Bosphorus.  The  Turks,  thrust  back  beyond  Mount 
Taurus,  might  still  worship  Mohammed  on  the  banks  of  the 
Euphrates. 

This  last  gigantic  scheme  of  national  robbery  involved  the 
cession  of  Constantinople  to  Russia,  and  to  this  Napoleon  would 
not  consent.  His  minister,  Caulaincourt,  proposed  to  obviate  the 
difficulty  by  making  Constantinople  and  the  shores  of  the  straits 
a  neutral  territory,  a  kind  of  Hanseatic  free  state,  like  Hamburg  or 
Bremen.     The   Ivussian   negotiator,   De   Romanov,   was  tenacious 

"The  text  was,  "  Soustrairc  Ics  provinces  d'Europc  aiix  vexations  de  la 
Porte,  exceptc  Constiuitinople  ct  la  Roiimilie."  See  Thiers,  "  Histoire  du  Con- 
sulat  ct  de  I'Empire,"  vol.  vii.  p.  668. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  405 

1807-1808 

as  to  Constantinople,  the  city  of  St.  Sophia,  the  true  metropohs  of 
the  Greek  Church,  and  the  natural  capital  of  the  empire  of  the  East. 
Caulaincourt  hinted  that  Constantinople  might  perhaps  be  given  up 
by  France,  but  only  on  condition  of  her  occupying  the  Dardanelles 
and  the  coasts  of  those  straits  as  the  proper  means  of  passage  for 
her  armies  into  Syria  by  the  old  route  of  the  crusaders.  The  Rus- 
sian would  not  yield  the  Dardanelles,  and  stated  tliat  the  emper(3r 
would  prefer  the  first,  the  limited  scheme  of  partition,  to  any  ar- 
rangement that  would  give  France  the  keys  of  the  passage  between 
the  Euxine  and  the  Mediterranean.  Thus  wrangled  they  over  the 
ideal  proceeds  of  an  uncommitted  crime,  little  thinking  that  Moscow 
was  soon  to  blaze,  with  French  invaders  for  her  occupants,  and  that 
Paris  in  a  few  more  years  was  to  yield  to  Russian  cannon,  while 
the  house  of  Othman  proceeded  to  complete  its  fourth  century  of 
unbroken  dominion  at  Constantinople. 

However  much  Alexander  and  Napoleon  in  1807  and  1808 
differed  in  their  theories  respecting  the  future  of  Turkey,  the  Rus- 
sian emperor  had  this  practical  advantage,  that  he  retained  pos- 
session of  Wallachia  and  Moldavia,  and  it  became  evident  to  the 
Austrian  as  well  as  to  the  Ottoman  court  that  he  had  no  intention 
of  retiring  from  them.  Austria  regarded  the  establishment  of  the 
Russian  emperor's  dominion  in  these  Danubian  principalities  with 
the  utmost  anxiety  and  alarm.  Justly  suspecting  that  France  and 
Russia  were  leagued  together  against  the  integrity  of  Turkey,  Aus- 
tria employed  her  mediation  to  reconcile  the  Porte  with  England,  as 
the  only  power  that  could  effectually  withstand  the  i)niject  of  the 
cabinet  of  the  Tuileries  and  St.  Petersburg.  Aided  by  this  in- 
fluence, Sir  Robert  Adair,  the  English  ambassador,  concluded  the 
Treaty  of  the  Dardanelles  with  Turkey  in  January.  1809.  The  im- 
perious menaces  by  which  France  and  Russia  endeavored  to  prevent 
the  Porte  from  making  peace  with  England  only  incensed  tlie  Turk- 
ish nation  more  and  more  against  Ivussia.  The  national  cry  was 
loud  for  war,  and  tlie  Ottomans  demanded  tliat  it  should  be  war  in 
earnest,  and  not  broken  by  armistices  to  suit  the  convenience  of  false 
foes  and  falser  friends.  Volunteers  for  the  campaign  came  forward 
readily  from  the  Alohammedan  ])Opulations  of  every  part  of  the 
empire,  but  such  was  the  extreme  disorganization  which  the  recent 
revolution  had  caused  that  there  was  no  concert,  no  subordination, 
and  sometimes  not  even  the  semblance  of  superior  authority,  among 
the  Turkish  commanders. 


406  TURKEY 

1809-1811 

About  the  same  time  that  hostiHties  between  the  Turks  and 
Russians  recommenced  on  the  Danube  the  Austrian  Empire  began 
its  calamitous  war  of  1809  with  France,  a  war  in  which  Russia,  in 
pursuance  of  her  confederacy  with  Napoleon,  took  part  against 
Austria.  It  is  true  that  the  Emperor  Alexander's  troops  entered 
but  languidly  into  that  struggle,  for  the  general  feeling  among  the 
Russians  toward  Napoleon  was  already  one  of  jealousy  and  dislike. 
But  the  prevalence  of  those  very  feelings,  in  which  the  emperor 
himself  ere  long  fully  shared,  kept  the  attention  of  Russia  fixed  more 
on  her  perils  from  the  West  than  on  her  prospects  in  the  South,  and 
neither  her  best  nor  her  largest  armies  were  drawn  away  from  the 
Polish  to  the  Danubian  provinces.  Still,  before  the  end  of  1809 
her  general.  Prince  Bagration,  had  taken  Isaktja,  Tulosch,  and 
Hirsowa,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  lower  Danube.  The  Servians 
and  the  Turks  of  Bosnia  again  fought  with  varying  success,  neither 
party  being  able  to  make  any  serious  impression  on  the  territories 
of  the  other. 

In  the  next  year  the  Russians  captured  Silistria  on  June  10, 
but  they  failed  in  a  series  of  operations  against  the  Grand  Vizier's 
camp  at  Shumla,  and  on  August  3  they  sustained  a  sanguinary 
overthrow  in  an  assault  made  by  them  upon  Rustchuk.  The 
Russians  owned  to  a  loss  of  8000  killed  and  wounded  in  this 
obstinate  contest.  In  the  autumn  of  1810  the  Russians  obtained 
some  important  successes.  A  large  Turkish  army  was  entirely  de- 
feated at  Battin,  on  September  7,  with  the  loss  of  camps,  artillery, 
and  baggage.  Sistova,  Rustchuk,  and  other  strong  places  were 
yielded  to  the  Russians,  but  all  their  attempts  at  penetrating 
through  Shumla  across  the  Balkan  were  unsuccessful.  In  the  fol- 
lowing year  the  Russian  generals  on  the  Danube  were  ordered  to  act 
only  on  the  defensive,  so  evident  and  so  imminent  was  the  gathering 
storm  from  the  West  against  Russia.  The  Turks  boldly  carried  the 
war  to  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube,  and  fought  with  great  gallantry 
in  several  engagements,  but  through  the  incompetency  of  their  com- 
manders they  were  beaten  in  detail,  and  one  whole  army  was  obliged 
to  surrender  to  the  Russian  general,  Kutusov,  as  prisoners  of  war. 
Russia  was  now  most  anxious  to  conclude  peace  with  the  Porte,  in 
order  to  have  the  full  means  of  defending  herself  against  Napoleon. 
Several  attempts  at  negotiating  a  treaty  were  made  in  181 1,  but 
without  success,  as  the  Emperor  Alexander  required  the  annexation 
of  not  only  Bessarabia,  but  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  to  his  empire. 


AGE     OF     REVOLUTION  407 

1811-1812 

terms  which  Sultan  Mahmud  peremptorily  refused.  But  the  grow- 
ing pressure  of  the  danger  from  France  made  the  Russians  abate 
their  demands,  and  consent  to  restore  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  but 
on  condition  that  Bessarabia  should  remain  in  their  possesssion. 
Napoleon  now  recognized,  when  too  late,  the  error  which  he  had 
committed  in  sacrificing  the  friendship  of  Turkey  to  the  hope  of 
propitiating  or  duping  Russia.  He  directed  his  ambassador  to 
urge  the  Sultan  to  advance  with  the  whole  strength  of  his  empire 
on  the  Danube;  and  promised  in  return,  not  only  to  secure  Moldavia 
and  Wallachia,  but  to  obtain  also  the  restoration  of  the  deeply 
regretted  Crimea  to  Turkey.  But  this  "  war-breathing  message  " 
arrived  too  late.  The  Porte  had  already  resolved  on  a  cessation 
of  hostilities  with  Russia.  The  envoys  of  the  Emperor  Alexander 
and  the  English  ministers  found  means  to  give  the  Turks  full  in- 
formation as  to  the  designs  which  Napoleon  had  encouraged  and 
brought  forward  for  the  dismemberment  of  their  empire;  so  that 
Sultan  Mahmud  now  naturally  disregarded  the  interests  of  the 
French  and  sought  only  to  obtain  an  alleviation  of  the  miseries 
which  his  own  nation  was  enduring.  By  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest, 
which  was  signed  on  May  28,  18 12,  the  River  Pruth  was  made 
the  boundary  between  the  Russian  and  Turkish  lunpires,  from 
the  point  where  it  enters  Moldavia  to  its  confluence  with  the  Danul)c. 
All  Moldavia  to  the  right  of  the  Pruth  and  the  whole  of  Wallachia 
were  given  back  to  the  Sultan,  who  bound  himself  to  maintain  and 
respect  all  the  former  conventions  and  stipulations  in  favor  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  restored  countries.  The  eighth  article  of  the 
treaty  relates  to  Servia.  It  recited  that,  "  though  it  was  impossible 
to  doubt  that  the  Sublime  Porte  would,  according  to  its  principles, 
act  with  gentleness  and  magnanimity  toward  the  Servians,  as  to  a 
people  that  had  long  been  under  its  dominion,  still  it  was  deemed 
just,  in  consideration  of  the  part  taken  by  the  Servians  in  the  war, 
to  come  to  a  solemn  agreement  respecting  their  security.''  A  full 
amnesty  was  therefore  granted  to  the  Servians.  The  regulation  of 
their  internal  affairs  was  to  be  left  to  thenisehcs,  and  only  moderate 
imposts  were  to  be  laid  on  them,  whicli  \vcrc  not  to  be  farmed,  but 
received  directly  by  the  treasurers  of  the  Porte.  But  the  Servian 
fortresses  were  to  be  given  np  to  tlie  Sultan,  and  were  again  to  be 
occupied  by  Turkish  garrisons. 


Chapter    XXIV 

MAHMUD    II    AND    THE    BIRTH    OF    MODERN 
TURKEY.     1 808- 1 839 

PERIL  from  Russia,  peril  from  England,  peril  from  France, 
peril  from  mutinous  Janissaries  and  factious  Ulemas,  peril 
from  many-headed  insurrection  among  Wahabites,  Mame- 
lukes, Servians,  Albanians,  Greeks,  Druses,  Kurds,  Syrians,  and 
Egyptians,  peril  from  rebellious  Pashas,  who  would  fain  have 
founded  new  kingdoms  on  the  ruins  of  the  house  of  Othman — such 
were  some  of  the  clouds  that  hung  over  the  reign  of  Mahmud,  the 
second  Sultan  of  that  name  and  the  thirtieth  sovereign  of  his  dy- 
nasty. He  braved  them  all.  Though  often  worsted  by  fortune  he 
never  gave  up  the  struggle,  and  his  memory  deserves  the  respect  of 
those  who  are  capable  of  judging  historical  characters  according  to 
the  rule  laid  down  by  Demosthenes,  the  great  statesman  of  antiquity, 
according  to  the  principle  of  giving  honor  to  sage  forethought 
and  energetic  action,  wdiether  favored  by  prosperous  or  baffled  by 
adverse  circumstances.  The  evils  that  Mahmud  saw  around  him 
were  gigantic,  and  he  gave  up  the  repose  of  his  seraglio  to  grapple 
with  them  in  the  true  heroic  spirit.  It  would  be  absurd  to  assert 
that  he  fell  into  no  errors,  it  would  be  rash  to  maintain  that  he 
was  sullied  by  no  crimes,  but  take  him  on  the  whole  he  was  a  great 
man,  who,  amid  difficulty,  disappointment,  and  disaster,  did  his 
duty  nobly  to  the  royal  house  whence  he  was  sprung  and  to  the 
once  magnificent  empire  which  it  was  his  hard  lot  to  govern. 

It  is  observable  in  the  early  part  of  Mahmud's  reign  that  two 
formidable  classes  of  his  enemies  were  swept  away  by  the  instru- 
mentality of  a  high  officer,  who  afterward  became  himself  the 
most  formidable  of  all  the  foes  who  crossed  the  Sultan's  path. 
The  -Mamelukes  were  destroyed  and  the  ^^"ahabites  completely 
conquered  by  Mahmud's  Egyptian  Pasha,  Mohammed  Ali,  one  of 
the  most  remarknlole  men  that  the  Mohammedan  world  has  pro- 
duced in  modern  limes. 

Mohammed  Ali  was  born  in  ^lacedonia  about  the  year  1765. 

408 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  409 

1807-1819 

He  served  in  the  Turkish  army  against  the  French  in  Egypt  and 
learned  there  the  superiority  of  the  arms  and  tactics  of  Western 
Europe  over  those  of  the  Turks  and  Mamehikes.  He  afterward 
distinguished  himself  greatly  in  the  repulse  of  the  English  expedi- 
tion against  Egypt  in  1807.  Having  attained  the  rank  of  Pasha 
of  the  province  he  strove  sedulously  to  free  the  country  and 
himself  from  the  lawless  tyranny  of  the  Mamelukes.  He  effected 
this  in  181 1  by  a  stroke  of  the  vilest  treachery  and  most  ruthless 
cruelty.  Under  the  show  of  reconciliation  and  hospitable  friend- 
ship he  brought  those  formidable  cavaliers  to  his  palace,  and  then 
caused  them  to  be  shot  down  by  his  Albanian  guards  while  cooped 
helplessly  together  in  a  narrow  passage  between  high  walls. 

The  Mamelukes  were  effectually  exterminated  by  this  atrocious 
massacre,  and  Mohammed  Ali  rapidly  consolidated  his  power  within 
his  province  and  also  extended  it  beyond  the  Egyptian  territory. 
His  armies,  under  his  sons,  carried  on  a  series  of  campaigns  against 
the  Wahabites  in  Arabia,  at  first  with  varying  success,  but  at  last 
the  power  of  those  fierce  sectaries  was  completely  broken.  The 
holy  cities  and  the  rest  of  Arabia  were  recovered,  and  Abdullah 
Ibn  Saud,  the  last  Emir  of  the  AVahabites,  was  made  captive.  Mo- 
hammed sent  him  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  beheaded  on 
November  19,  18 19.  The  Egyptian  Pasha  next  conquered  Xubia 
and  Sennaar  and  annexed  those  regions  to  his  dominions.  He 
had  formed  an  army  on  the  European  model,  trained  and  officered 
by  European  military  adventurers,  chiefly  from  France,  whom 
the  cessation  of  the  great  wars  in  Christendom  after  181 5  set 
at  liberty  and  who  were  tempted  to  Egypt  by  the  high  pay  and 
favor  which  Mohammed  offered.  Equal  care  was  taken  in  pre- 
paring and  manning  a  naval  force,  in  the  iinpro\-ement  of  harbors, 
the  construction  of  docks  and  roads,  and  all  those  other  territorial 
improvements  which  are  at  once  the  emblems  and  the  engines  of 
wdiat  is  called  enlightened  despotism.  The  ])eople  of  I^-gypt  suf- 
fered bitterly  under  :Mohammed's  imposts  and  still  more  under  the 
severe  laws  of  conscription  by  which  he  filled  llic  ranks  of  his  army. 
But  arbitrary  and  oppressive  as  was  Mohammed's  system  it  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  him  the  great  object  of  his  heart,  a  ]icrmanent  and 
efficient  military  force,  as  was  well  prcnc.l  when  he  aided  the  Sultan 
against  the  Greeks  and  still  better  proved  at  a  later  period  in  the 
campaigns  which  Mohammed's  son,  Ibrahim  Pasha,  conducted 
against  the  generals  of  the  Sultan  himself. 


410  TURKEY 

1813-1815 

Before,  however,  we  consider  these  last-mentioned  events  we 
must  revert  to  the  affairs  of  Servia  and  the  other  northern  prov- 
inces of  European  Turkey.  It  has  been  observed  how  vague 
and  unsatisfactory  were  the  stipulations  respecting  the  Servians 
that  were  introduced  in  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest.  One  natural 
result  of  this  was  that  Kara  George  and  the  other  Servian  chiefs 
were  desirous  of  having  some  definite  provisions  made  for  the 
security  of  their  people  before  the  Turks  took  possession  of  the 
fortresses,  whereas  the  Sultan's  officers  insisted  on  Belgrade  and 
the  other  strongholds  being  given  up  to  them  immediately.  While 
these  and  other  differences  were  pending  Molla  Pasha  of  Widdin, 
who  (like  the  former  chief  of  that  Pashalic,  Pasvan  Oglu)  was  in 
active  rebellion  against  the  Sultan,  proposed  to  the  Servians  that 
they  should  ally  themselves  with  him  against  the  Porte.  The 
Servians  declined  this  offer  in  compliance  with  the  advice  of  the 
Russians,  who  were  endeavoring  to  induce  Turkey  to  join  the  con- 
federation against  France  (Napoleon  not  yet  having  been  com- 
pletely overthrown),  and  were  consequently  at  that  time  desirous 
of  saving  the  Porte  from  embarrassment.  The  disputes  between  the 
Turks  and  Servians  continued  to  increase,  and  in  1813  Turkish 
armies  assailed  and  overran  the  country.  Kara  George  (who  had 
made  himself  absolute  ruler  of  the  Servians  and  from  whom  at 
least  the  example  of  courage  was  expected)  now  betrayed  his 
self-assumed  trust.  He  buried  his  treasure,  which  was  considerable, 
and  fled  across  the  frontier  into  Austria.  Once  more  Servia  seemed 
hopelessly  bowed  down  beneath  the  Turkish  yoke,  but  the  gallantry 
of  one  of  her  Kneses,  Milosh  Obrenovich,  once  more  preserved  her. 
Animated  and  guided  by  him,  the  Servians  rose  in  arms  in  181 5, 
and  before  the  close  of  the  year  the  Turkish  troops  that  had  occu- 
pied the  country  were  broken  and  dispersed,  though  the  fortresses 
remained  in  the  occupation  of  the  Sultan's  garrisons.  Two  formid- 
able Ottoman  armies  advanced  upon  Servia  in  the  succeeding  year, 
but  instead  of  overwhelming  her  they  halted  on  the  frontier  and 
offered  to  negotiate.  This  hesitation  on  the  part  of  the  Ottomans 
was  caused  by  the  universal  excitement  then  prevailing  through- 
out the  Christian  populations  of  Turkey,  who  expected  an  inter- 
vention in  their  behalf  to  be  made  by  the  confederate  sovereigns 
of  the  Holy  Alliance  and  were  ready  to  rise  throughout  the  empire 
at  the  first  signal  of  encouragement.  The  Porte  also  had  watched 
with  anxiety  and  akirm  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress  at  Vienna 


MAHMUDII  411 

1815 

to  which  no  representative  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  admitted, 
and  the  league  of  the  three  sovereigns  of  Russia,  Austria,  and 
Prussia,  as  "  Holy  Allies,"  seemed  eminently  menacing  to  the  ex- 
cluded Ottomans.  Under  these  circumstances  the  Sultan  was 
averse  to  entangling  and  risking  his  whole  available  military  force 
In  a  war  against  the  Servian  Rayas.  No  absolute  attempt  was 
made  to  conquer  Servia,  but  a  series  of  embassies  and  treaties 
occupied  several  years,  during  which  Milosh  made  himself  absolute 
ruler  of  the  Servians  much  after  the  manner  of  his  predecessor, 
Kara  George.  Kara  George  himself,  who  ventured  to  return  to 
his  country,  was  seized  and  shot  by  the  commands  of  Milosh  on 
the  requisition  of  the  Turks.^  Milosh  observed  the  external 
semblance  of  obedience  to  the  Porte,  which  had  reason  at  that 
period  to  be  content  that  a  chief  should  rule  the  Servians  who  would 
keep  them  In  control,  and  whose  self-interest  would  deter  him  from 
joining  in  revolutionary  projects  for  the  total  overthrow  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  But  it  is  not  probable  that  after  the  Holy  Al- 
liance had  clearly  shown  its  disinclination  to  interfere  in  the  affairs 
of  the  East  Mahmud  would  long  have  acquiesced  In  the  real  inde- 
pendence of  the  Grand  Knes  of  Servia  had  It  not  been  for  the  grave 
difficulties  that  were  brought  upon  the  Sultan  by  the  Greek  in- 
surrection and  other  circumstances  connected  with  that  celebrated 
event. 

Many  causes  combined  to  originate  and  to  sustain  the  Greek 
War  of  Independence.  The  first  and  the  most  enduring  were  un- 
questionably those  feelings  which  are  among  the  noblest  of  our 
nature,  and  which  the  national  historian  of  modern  Greece  refers 
to  wlien  he  claims  peculiar  glory  for  liis  country,  "  because  from 
the  very  commencement  of  the  struggle,  her  purpose,  proclaimed 
before  God  and  man,  was  to  break  tlie  yoke  of  the  stranger  and  to 
raise  again  from  the  dead  her  nationality  and  her  independence. 
She  took  up  arms  that  she  might  by  force  of  arms  thrust  out  of 
Greece  a  race  alien  to  her  in  blood  and  in  creed,  a  race  that  had  by 
force  of  arms  held  her  captive  for  ages  and  that  regarded  her 
to  the  last  as  its  captive  and  as  subject  to  the  edge  of  its  sword." 
To  these  public  feelings  were  added,  in  the  bosoms  of  many,  the 
remembrance  and  the  sense  of  intolerable  private  wrong.     More- 

1  This  assassination  has  given  rise  to  a  liitter  fetid  between  the  descendants 
of  Kara  George  and  Milosh,  which  has  reccnti}'  given  proof  of  its  activity  in  the 
terrible  murders  at  Belgrade,  1903. 


412  TURKEY 

1815 

over,  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge  among  the  Greeks  and 
the  impulse  that  had  been  given  to  education  and  literary  pursuits 
since  the  time  of  Selim  IIT.  powerfully  contributed  in  arousing 
the  courage  as  well  as  the  intelligence  of  a  long-oppressed  and 
much-enduring  people.  Many  also  of  the  Greeks  had  acquired 
both  wealth  and  habits  of  energetic  enterprise  by  the  advancing 
commerce  of  their  nation,  and  the  insular  and  seafaring  population 
of  the  country  had  generally  shown  the  greatest  activity  and  skill 
in  availing  themselves  of  the  opportunities  which  the  state  of  Europe 
for  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  century  gave  them  for  securing 
a  large  share  of  the  carrying  trade  of  the  Levant.  While  Greece 
thus  possessed  admirable  materials  for  a  national  maritime  force 
she  had  also  better  resources  for  an  immediate  military  struggle 
on  land  than  nations  which  have  been  subject  to  others  for  cen- 
turies can  usually  command.  Her  bands  of  Klephts,  or  robbers, 
were  numerous,  well-armed,  and  brave,  and  such  an  occupation 
in  a  country  in  the  condition  of  Greece  before  the  revolution  im- 
plied no  greater  degree  of  discredit  than  was  attached  in  England 
during  the  early  Norman  reigns  to  the  "  bold  outlaws  "  of  Sher- 
wood, or  in  Greece  herself  in  the  Homeric  ages  to  the  avowed 
sea-rover  and  pirate.  There  was  also  in  central  and  northern 
Greece  another  important  class  of  armed  natives,  forming  a  kind  of 
militia,  which  had  been  originally  instituted  and  sanctioned 
by  the  Turks  themselves  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  order 
and  repressing  the  Klephts.  These  national  guards  (as  they  might 
be  termed)  were  composed  exclusively  of  Greeks  and  w^ere  officered 
by  Greeks,  but  they  acknowledged  the  authority  of  the  Pashas  of 
their  respective  districts.  They  frequently  consisted  of  Klephts 
who  had  come  in  from  the  mountains  and  made  terms  with  the 
government,  and  who  were  thenceforth  denominated  "  Tame 
Klephts,"  but  the  regular  name  of  the  defensive  troops  was  the 
Armatoli.  The  Porte  had  for  some  years  before  the  Greek  revolu- 
tion been  jealous  of  the  numbers  and  organization  of  the  Armatoles, 
and  violent  efforts  had  been  made  to  reduce  their  strength,  which 
chiefly  resulted  in  driving  them  into  open  rebellion  and  increasing 
the  power  of  the  armed,  or  wild,  Klephts.  Another  circumstance 
which  favored  still  more  the  insurrection  of  Greece  was  the  density 
and  homogeneousness  of  its  Christian  population,  far  exceeding 
the  usual  proportions  to  be  found  in  the  Turkish  Empire.  Napoleon 
had  remarked  in  one  of  his  conversations  at  St.  Helena  on  the  sub- 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  413 

1770-1815 

ject  of  the  East  that  the  Sultans  had  committed  a  great  fault  in 
allowing  so  large  a  mass  of  Christians  of  the  same  race  to  collect 
together  and  in  such  numerical  preponderance  above  their  masters, 
as  in  Greece,  and  he  predicted  that  "  sooner  or  later  this  fault  will 
bring  on  the  fall  of  the  Ottomans."  ^  Such  were  the  impulses  and 
resources  which  Greece  possessed  within  herself  for  her  War  of 
Independence  which  must,  however,  have  been  ultimately  unsuc- 
cessful (notwithstanding  the  gallantry  with  which  it  was  waged) 
had  it  not  been  for  the  sympathy  which  the  Greek  cause  excited 
among  all  the  nations  of  Europe, 

Ever  since  the  ineffectual  rising  with  Russian  help  which  took 
place  in  1770  the  Greeks  had  been  incessantly  scheming  fresh 
attempts.  Toward  the  close  of  the  century  Rhigas,  their  national 
poet,  whose  lyrics  powerfully  contributed  to  keep  up  the  flame  of 
freedom  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  formed  the  project 
of  uniting  the  whole  Greek  nation  in  a  secret  confederacy  for 
the  overthrow  of  their  Turkish  masters.  Thus  was  originated, 
and  first  organized  the  celebrated  Hetseria.  It  made  rapid  and 
extensive  progress  under  Rhigas,  but  it  decayed  after  his  death 
in  1798.  It  was  revived  in  1814  am.ong  the  Greeks  of  Odessa  by 
Nicholas  Skophas.  He  termed  it  the  Society  (or  Hetzeria)  of  the 
Philikoi,  and  by  engrafting  it  on  a  literary  society  which  was 
flourishing  at  Athens  he  obtained  the  means  of  spreading  it  with 
rapidity  among  the  most  intelligent  Greeks,  and  at  the  same  time 
of  masking  it  from  the  suspicion  of  the  Turks.  The  association 
soon  comprised  many  thousand  members,  A  great  number  of 
officers  in  the  Russian  service  were  enrolled  in  it,  and  it  was  sup- 
posed to  identify  Russian  policy  and  Greek  interests  more  closely 
than  really  was  the  case,  a  supposition  highly  favorable  to  its 
advancement,  as  the  belief  that  they  were  acting  under  Russian 
authority  and  were  sure  to  receive  Russian  aid  in  time  of  need  nat- 
urally increased  the  numerical  strength  and  boldness  of  the 
confederates.  The  association  had  its  hierarcliy,  its  secret  signs, 
and  its  mysterious  but  exciting  formalities.  'Its  general  spirit 
may  be  judged  of  by  the  oath  administered  to  the  initiated  in  the 
third  of  its  seven  degrees:  "  Fight  for  thy  Faith  and  thy  Father- 
land. Thou  shalt  hate,  thou  shalt  persecute,  tliou  shalt  utterly 
destroy  the  enemies  of  thy  religion,  of  thy  race,  and  of  thy  coun- 
try."    The  IletcCria  had  its  brandies  and  agents  in  every  province 

-  Montholon,  "History  of  the  Captivity  of  Napoleon,"  vol.  iv.  p.  229. 


414)  TURKEY 

1820 

of  European  Turkey,  in  the  cliief  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  and  in  every 
foreign  state  where  any  number  of  Greeks  had  settled.  Early  in 
1820  its  chiefs  were  making  preparations  for  a  general  insurrection 
which  could  not  have  been  much  longer  delayed.  But  the  event 
which  was  the  immediate  cause  of  the  rising  was  the  war  between 
the  Sultan  and  .Mi  Pasha,  which  broke  out  in  the  spring  of  that 
year  and  offered  the  Greeks  the  advantage  of  beginning  their  revo- 
lution while  the  best  troops  of  the  Porte  were  engaged  against  a 
formidable  enemy — against  one  v/ho  long  had  been  himself  one  of 
the  strongest  and  crudest  oppressors  of  the  Greek  race,  but  now 
seemed  driven  by  self-interest  to  become  its  most  valuable  ally. 

Nothing  certain  at  this  time  was  known  in  the  Divan  at  Con- 
stantinople of  the  danger  that  was  gathering  against  the  Ottoman 
power  in  the  Hetseria  of  the  Greeks,  and  Sultan  Mahmud  had 
determined  on  commencing  one  of  the  many  difficult  tasks  of  his 
reign,  that  of  effectually  putting  down  the  over-powerful  and  re- 
bellious vassals  who  had  long  maintained  their  empires  within  his 
empire  and  who  overshadowed  the  majesty  of  his  throne.  None 
of  these  was  more  insolently  independent,  or  had  given  juster  cause 
of  alarm  or  offense  to  the  Porte,  than  Ali  of  Epirus,  the  Pasha  of 
Janina,  whose  name  has  already  often  occurred  to  us,  but  who 
requires  more  special  notice  in  considering  the  recent  history  of 
the  Ottomans  and  their  subject-races. 

Ali  Pasha  was  an  Albanian,  and  his  family  belonged  to  one  of 
the  tribes  that  had  long  embraced  ^Mohammedanism.  His  ancestors 
had,  for  several  generations,  been  hereditary  chiefs  of  the  little 
fortified  village  of  Tepelene,  where  Ali  was  born  about  the  year 
1741.  His  father  (who  died  before  Ali  was  fourteen)  had  been 
deprived  of  nearly  all  the  possessions  of  the  family  in  a  series  of 
unsuccessful  feuds  with  the  neighboring  chieftains.  Ali's  mother, 
Khamko,  trained  the  lad  up  to  make  revenge  and  power  the  sole 
objects  of  his  existence.  He  formed  a  band  of  freebooters,  at  the 
head  of  which  he  sometimes  won  plunder  and  renown,  and  some- 
times experienced  extreme  reverses  and  peril.  On  some  occasions 
he  sought  refuge  in  the  mountains,  where  he  wandered  as  a  soli- 
tary Klepht.  or  robber,  till  he  again  gathered  comrades  and  struck 
for  power  as  well  as  for  existence.  After  some  years  of  romantic 
but  savage  adventures  Ali  had  recovered  the  greater  part  of  tiie 
territories  of  his  family  and  had  acquired  fame  throughout  .M- 
bania  as   a  bold   and   successful   chieftain.      He   did  good   ser\  ice 


MAHMUDII  415 

1820 

in  the  armies  of  the  Porte  against  the  Austrians  in  1788,  and 
partly  by  the  reputation  thus  gained,  but  still  more  by  bribery,  he 
obtained  from  the  Divan  the  Pashalic  of  Trikala,  in  Thessaly. 
By  unscrupulous  and  audacious  craft  and  crime  he  afterward  made 
himself  Pasha  of  Janina,  in  Epirus,  which  thenceforth  was  the 
capital  of  his  dominions.  Gifted  with  great  sagacity  and  embar- 
rassed by  no  remorse  and  little  fear,  Ali  triumphed  over  rival  Begs 
and  Pashas,  and  almost  accomplished  the  subjugation  of  the  neigh- 
boring mountain  tribes,  though  he  experienced  from  them,  and 
especially  from  the  gallant  Suliotes,  a  long  and  obstinate  resistance. 
Every  forward  step  of  All's  career  was  stained  by  the  foulest 
treachery  and  the  most  fiendish  cruelty.  But  the  cities  and  lands 
under  his  rule  obtained  peace,  security,  and  commercial  prosperity. 
Ali  watched  eagerly  the  conflicts  and  changes  of  which  nearly 
all  Europe  was  the  scene  for  many  years  after  the  breaking  out 
of  the  first  French  Revolution.  He  had  frequent  negotiations  with 
Napoleon  and  other  rulers  of  the  West,  who  substantially,  though 
not  formally,  recognized  him  as  an  independent  potentate.  It  is 
said  that  "  his  scheme  was  to  make  himself  master  of  all  Albania, 
Thessaly,  Greece,  and  the  Ionian  Islands,  and  the  Gulf  of  Arta,  a 
bay  with  a  narrow  entrance,  but  spacious  enough  to  contain  the 
united  fleets  of  Europe,  was  to  become  the  center  of  this  new  em- 
pire. His  Albanians  were  the  best  soldiers  in  Turkey,  the  forests 
of  Janina  and  Delvino  abound  with  excellent  timber,  and  Greece 
would  have  furnished  him  the  most  enterprising  sailors  in  the  ]\Ied- 
iterranean."  Ali  never  could  realize  this  project,  but  he  maintained 
and  increased  his  dominion  until  1819,  when  the  acquisition  of 
Parga  was  his  last  triumph.  ]\Iahmud  had  long  resolved  to  quell 
his  insubordinate  Pasha,  whose  haughty  independence  was  no- 
torious throughout  Europe,  and  a  daring  crime  committed  by  Ali 
in  February,  1820,  gave  the  immediate  pretext  for  his  destruction. 
Two  of  Ali's  agents  were  detected  in  Constantinople  in  an  attempt 
to  assassinate  Ismail  Pasha,  who  had  fled  from  Janina  to  avoid 
the  effects  of  the  Pasha's  enmity,  and  had  been  employed  in  the 
Sultan's  own  court.  A  fetwah  was  forthwith  issued  by  which  Ali 
was  declared  Fermanli  (or  outlaw),  and  all  loyal  Viziers  and  other 
subjects  of  the  Padishah  were  ordered  to  make  war  upon  the  rebel. 
In  the  conflict  which  ensued  Ali  had  at  first  some  success,  but 
ATah-nuid  inspired  his  generals  \^  ith  some  portidu  of  his  own  energy, 
and  by  sternly  declaring  that  he  would  put  to  death  anvune  who 


416  TURKEY 

1821-1829 

dared  to  speak  in  favor  of  the  outlaw,  the  Sultan  checked  the  usual 
efficacy  of  the  bribes  which  AH  dispensed  among  many  members 
of  the  Divan.  Cooped  up  in  Janina  Ali  prolonged  his  resistance 
till  the  beginning  of  1822,  when  he  was  lured  into  the  power  of 
his  enemies  by  pretended  terms  of  capitulation,  and  put  to  death 
by  Kurshid  Pasha,  who  commanded  the  besieging  army. 

But  while  the  "  old  Lion  of  Janina  "  (as  Ali  was  called)  thus 
long  held  at  bay  the  Sultan's  forces  and  detained  one  of  the 
ablest,  though  most  ferocious,  of  the  Sultan's  generals,  almost  all 
Greece  had  risen  and  beaten  back  the  Ottomans,  and  a  similar  in- 
surrection had  been  for  a  time  successfully  attempted  in  the  trans- 
Danubian  provinces.  In  February,  1821,  Ipsilanti,  a  Greek  who 
had  obtained  high  distinction  in  the  Russian  army  and  who  was 
then  the  chief  of  the  Hetaeria,  crossed  the  Pruth  into  Moldavia 
with  a  small  band  and  called  on  his  countrymen  throughout  the 
Turkish  Empire  to  take  up  arms.  Unhappily,  the  very  first  acts 
of  the  Greek  liberators  (though  Ipsilanti  was  not  personally  re- 
sponsible for  them)  were  the  cruel  and  cowardly  murders  of 
Turkish  merchants  in  the  towns  of  Galatz  and  Jassy.  The  tidings 
of  these  things,  with  the  addition  of  much  exaggeration  and  many 
false  rumors,  soon  reached  Constantinople.  The  consequent  in- 
dignation, and  the  alarm  of  the  Mohammedans  at  the  widespread 
confederacy  of  their  Rayas  against  them,  which  was  now  sud- 
denly revealed,  produced  a  series  of  savage  massacres  of  the  Greek 
residents  in  the  capital,  and  these  were  imitated  or  exceeded  by  the 
Turkish  populations,  and  especially  the  Janissaries  in  Smyrna  and 
other  towns.  Indeed,  throughout  the  six  years'  war  that  followed 
the  most  ferocious  and  often  treacherous  cruelty  was  exhibited 
on  both  sides.  But  many  acts  of  heroism  worthy  of  the  best  days 
of  ancient  Greece  cast  a  luster  on  the  cause  of  the  insurgents  and 
added  to  the  sympathy  with  which  the  peoples  of  Christian  Europe 
regarded  their  efforts,  sympathy  which  was  shown  in  the  acces- 
sion of  frequent  volunteers  to  the  Greek  armies  and  in  liberal 
contributions  by  individuals  and  private  societies  to  their  funds 
before  the  kings  of  Christendom  interfered  in  the  conflict.  In 
Moldavia  and  Wallachia  the  Turks  destroyed  Ipsilanti's  force  and 
put  an  end  to  the  insurrection  at  the  battle  of  Drageschan,  on 
June  19,  1 82 1.  But  in  Greece  and  on  the  Greek  seas  the  bands 
and  light  squadrons  of  the  insurgents  were  generally  victorious 
over  the  Turkish  armies  and   fleets,   until   in    1825   Sultan   Mali- 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  417 

1826 

mud  summoned  to  Greece  the  forces  of  his  Egyptian  Pasha, 
Mohammed  Ali.  The  effect  of  superior  arms  and  discipHne  was  at 
once  apparent.  Ibrahim  Pasha  at  the  head  of  his  father's  regular 
battahons  defeated  the  Greeks  in  every  encounter,  laid  waste  their 
territory  at  his  will,  and  gradually  reconquered  the  cities  and  for- 
tresses which  had  been  won  from  the  Turks,  Missolonghi  (which 
was  regarded  as  the  great  bulwark  of  western  Greece)  falling  after 
a  noble  resistance,  on  April  22,  1826,  and  Athens  surrendering  in 
the  June  of  the  following  year.^ 

While  the  Egyptian  troops  were  thus  maintaining  a  decided 
superiority  by  land  the  squadron  sent  by  Mohammed  Ali  had  com- 
bined with  the  Turkish,  and  a  powerful  fleet  of  heavily-armed  and 
well-manned  ships  was  thus  collected  under  the  Sultan's  flag  in 
the  Greeks  waters,  with  which  the  lighter  vessels  of  the  insurgents 
were  utterly  unable  to  cope.  The  usual  curses  of  a  liberal  cause, 
when  the  fortune  of  arms  goes  against  it — disunion  and  civil  war — 
now  raged  among  the  Greek  chiefs,  and  despite  the  general  gal- 
lantry of  the  nation  and  the  high  abilities  and  boundless  devotion 
displayed  by  some  of  the  leaders,  Greece  must  have  sunk  in  1827 
if  the  forces  of  the  three  great  powers  of  Christian  Europe  had 
not  appeared  with  startling  effect  on  the  s.cene. 

Before,  however,  we  consider  the  final  catastrophe  of  the  Greek 
war  we  must  revert  to  the  intervening  transactions  between  the 
Porte  and  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg  on  the  subject  of  Servia 
and  the  principalities,  and  also  to  the  bold  measures  by  which 
the  Sultan,  in  1826,  struck  down  the  long-hated  and  long-dreaded 
power  of  the  Janissaries  and  revolutionized  the  military  system 
of  his  empire.  The  destruction  of  the  Janissaries  is  the  greatest 
event  of  Mahmud's  reign.  While  considering  the  state  of  Turkey 
in  the  first  years  of  Selim  III.  we  have  seen  how  indispensably 
necessary  it  had  become,  both  for  the  internal  amelioration  of  the 
empire  and  for  strengthening  it  against  attacks  from  without, 
that  tliere  should  be  a  thorough  change  in  the  composition,  the 
organization,  the  discipline,  and  the  arms  of  the  regular  troops. 
,We  have  seen  how  obstinately  the  Janissaries  resisted  all  improve- 
ments and  the  savage  fury  with  which  they  destroyed  the  sovereign 
and  the  statesmen  who  endeavored  to  effect  the  requisite  alterations. 
Since  those  events  the  worthlessness  of  the  Janissaries  in  the  field 

"  An   interesting  account  of  the   war   whicli   abounds   in   picturesque   details 
will  be  found  in  W.  A.  Phillips's  "  The  Greek  War  of  Independence." 


418  TURKEY 

1826 

had  been  further  proved,  not  only  in  the  campaigns  on  the  Danube 
in  1810  and  181 1,  but  still  more  concktsively  in  their  repeated  fail- 
ures against  the  Greek  insurgents.  On  the  other  hand,  the  vic- 
torious progress  of  the  Egyptian  troops  in  Greece  demonstrated 
that  the  European  discipline  could  be  acquired  by  Mohammedans 
as  well  as  by  natives  of  Christendom,  and  that  the  musket  and 
bayonet  were  as  effective  in  the  hands  of  a  Copt  or  Arab  as  in 
those  of  a  IMuscovite  or  Frank.  The  comparison  between  the 
troops  sent  from  his  Egyptian  provinces  and  those  supplied  by 
other  parts  of  his  empire  was  at  once  inspiriting  and  galling  to  the 
Sultan.  He  saw  that  Mohammed  Ali  had  realized  in  Egypt  the  very 
projects  which  had  hitherto  been  beyond  the  power  and  almost 
beyond  the  daring  of  the  Padishahs  of  the  Ottoman  world.  Mah- 
mud  determined  that  this  contrast  should  cease  to  shame  him  and 
that  the  Janissaries  should  no  longer  survive  the  Mamelukes.  But 
he  knew  well  the  numerical  strength  and  the  unscrupulous  violence 
of  the  body  which  he  was  about  to  assail.  Scarcely  a  year  of  his 
reign  had  passed  in  which  some  part  of  his  capital  had  not  been 
destroyed  by  fires  caused  by  malcontent  Janissaries,  or  in  which  it 
had  not  been  necessary  to  make  some  concession  to  their  turbulent 
demands.  It  was  impossible  to  collect  and  destroy  them  by  any 
stratagem,  such  as  Mohammed  Ali  had  used  against  the  Mamelukes, 
nor,  indeed,  is  there  any  act  of  Mahmud's  life  which  justifies  us  in 
suspecting  that  he  would  have  been  willing  to  employ  such  treacher- 
ous artifices,  even  if  they  could  have  availed  him.  Mahmud  fore- 
saw that  a  battle  in  the  streets  of  Constantinople  must  decide 
the  question  between  him  and  the  Janissaries,  and  he  diligently 
strengthened  himself  in  the  arm  of  war  which  is  most  effective  in 
street  contests.  It  is  said  that  when  he  heard  of  the  manner  in 
which  Murat,  in  1808,  used  cannon  to  clear  the  streets  of  Madrid 
of  the  insurgent  populace,  it  made  such  an  impression  on  the  Sul- 
tan's mind  that  it  never  was  forgotten.*  He  sedulously  improved 
the  condition  of  his  own  artillery  force  and  by  degrees  officered  it 
with  men  on  whose  loyalty  and  resolution  he  could  rely.  When, 
in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  reign,  he  made  ready  for  the  final 
struggle  with  his  Janissaries,  he  had  increased  the  force  of  Topidjis, 
or  artillerymen,  in  and  near  Constantinople  to  14,000,  and  he  had 
placed  at  their  head  an  officer  of  unscrupulous  devotion  to  his 
sovereign's  will.     This  general  of  Turkish  artillery  was  named 

*  Ranke,  "  Scrvia,"  p.  369. 


M  A  H  M  U  D     II  419 

1826 

Ibrahim,  but  his  conduct  on  the  day  of  the  conflict  and  his  swarthy 
complexion  made  him  afterward  known  by  the  grim  title  of  Kara 
Djehennin,  or  "  Black  Hell."  Mahmud  also  had  taken  an  oppor- 
tunity to  appoint  as  Aga  of  the  Janissaries  themselves  Hussein,  who 
was  ready  to  carry  out  all  the  Sultan's  projects.  The  Grand 
Vizier  was  staunch  to  his  sovereign  and  a  man  of  spirit,  and  a  large 
body  of  trustworthy  Asiatic  troops  was  encamped  at  Scutari,  which 
could  be  brought  into  action  at  the  fitting  moment,  Mahmud  also 
reasoned,  not  unsuccessfully,  with  the  leading  Ulema  on  the  folly 
of  their  abetting  by  their  influence  the  obstinate  disloyalty  of  the 
Janissaries,  who  might  once  have  been  the  truest  champions,  but 
were  now  clearly  the  worst  enemies  of  Islam.  He  had  a  little 
before  this  time  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Chief  Mufti  a  man  who 
would  support  him,  and  he  determined  to  proceed  in  strict  ac- 
cordance W'ith  every  recognized  formality  and  law  so  as  to  throw 
upon  the  Janissaries  the  odium  of  being  the  first  to  appeal  to  brute 
force.  In  a  great  council  of  Viziers  and  Ulema  held  in  June,  1826, 
it  was  resolved  that  only  by  encountering  the  infidels  with  a 
regularly-disciplined  army  was  it  possible  for  the  Moslems  to 
regain  the  advantage  over  them,  and  a  fetwah  was  drawn  up  and 
signed  by  all  the  members  of  the  council  which  ordered  a  certain 
number  out  of  each  Orta  of  the  Janissaries  to  practice  the  requisite 
military  exercises.^  After  some  murmurings  and  partial  tumults 
the  whole  body  of  the  Janissaries  of  the  capital  assembled  on 
June  15,  1826,  in  the  Atmeidan,  overturned  their  camp-kettles, 
the  well-known  signal  of  revolt,  and  advanced  upon  the  palace 
with  loud  cries  for  the  heads  of  the  Sultan's  chief  ministers. 
But  ]\Iahmud  was  fully  prepared  for  them.  He  unfurled  in  per- 
son the  Sacred  Standard  of  the  Prophet  and  called  on  all  true 
believers  to  rally  round  their  Padishah  and  their  Caliph.  The  en- 
thusiasm of  the  people  was  roused  into  action  on  his  side,  and  he 
had  ready  the  more  effectual  support  of  his  artillerymen  and 
Asiatic  troops.  As  the  Janissaries  pressed  forward  through  the 
narrow  streets  toward  the  Serail,  "  Black  Hell  "  and  his  gunners 
showered  grape  on  them,  and  round  shot  cut  lanes  through  their 
struggling  columns.  They  fell  back  on  the  Atmeidan  and  defended 
themselves  there  with  musketry  for  some  time  with  great  steadiness 
and  courage.  After  many  had  perished  the  remnant  of  the  sons 
of  Hadji  Begtasch  retired  in  good  order  to  their  barracks,  wdiich 

^  Ranke,  "  Servia,"  p.  369. 


420  TURKEY 

1826 

they  barricaded,  and  they  prepared  themselves  to  offer  the  most 
desperate  resistance  to  the  anticipated  assault.  But  Mahmud  and 
his  officers  risked  no  troops  in  such  an  encounter.  The  Sultan's 
artillery  was  drawn  up  before  the  barracks  and  an  incessant  storm 
of  shot  and  shell  was  poured  in  on  the  devoted  mutineers.  Some 
of  the  most  daring  of  them  sallied  out,  saber  in  hand,  but  were 
all  shot  or  cut  down  as  they  endeavored  to  escape.  Some  few 
begged  for  mercy,  which  w^as  sternly  refused.  The  artillery  of  Kara 
Djehennin  continued  to  thunder  upon  the  buildings  till  they  were 
set  on  fire  and  utterly  destroyed,  and  the  last  of  the  Janissaries 
of  Constantinople  perished  among  the  blazing  and  blood-stained 
ruins. 

The  number  of  those  who  fell  on  this  memorable  day  has  been 
variously  estimated.  The  most  accurate  calculation  seems  to  be 
that  which  gives  4000  as  the  number  of  the  Janissaries  killed  in 
the  battle.  Many  thousands  more  were  put  to  death  afterward 
in  the  various  cities  of  the  empire,  for  Mahmud  followed  up  his 
victory  with  unremitting  vigor  and  severity.  The  Janissary  force 
throughout  the  Ottoman  dominions  was  abolished,  their  name  was 
proscribed,  their  standards  destroyed,  and  the  assemblage  of  new 
troops  on  a  new  system  was  ordered,  which  were  (in  the  words 
of  the  Sultan's  proclamation)  to  sustain  the  cause  of  religion  and 
of  the  empire  under  the  designation  of  the  "  Victorious  Moham- 
medan Armies." 

At  this  point  in  Sultan  Mahmud's  career  it  was  not  without 
reason  that  he  was  "  aroused  into  courageous  self-confidence  and 
animated  with  high  and  promising  hopes."  The  endurance  and 
the  preparations  of  eighteen  years  had  gained  their  reward.  He 
had  accomplished  the  task  which  had  baffled  so  many  of  his  pred- 
ecessors ;  lie  had  swept  away  the  military  tyranny  under  which 
the  empire  had  groaned  for  centuries.  At  last  the  Sultan  felt  real 
freedom  for  himself  and  real  sovereignty  over  his  kingdom.  He 
now  formed  an  army  of  upward  of  40,000  men,  clothed,  armed, 
and  disciplined  after  the  European  system.  It  w-as  expected  that 
this  force  would  by  degrees  be  raised  to  tlie  number  of  250,000. 
True  it  is  that  Mahmud  found  no  adequate  aid  from  among  en- 
lightened members  of  his  own  nation,  that  nearly  everything  had 
to  be  done  "  by  the  Sultan's  own  iron  will."  But  that  will  had 
already  worked  wonders,  and  each  success  gave  him  tenfold  means 
for  achieving  others.     In  the  provinces  the  most  formidable  of  the 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  421 

1826 

rebellious  Pashas  who  had  set  at  nought  the  authority  of  the  throne 
in  the  beginning  of  his  reign  were  now  dead  or  deposed,  and,  above 
all,  the  head  of  Ali  of  Janina  had  been  shown  by  Mahmud  himself, 
in  stern  triumph,  to  his  submissive  Divan.  The  Wahabites  were 
crushed,  the  Mamelukes  exterminated.  Mohammed  Ali  had  hitherto 
committed  no  overt  act  of  insubordination.  Rebellion  had  been 
trodden  out  in  Moldavia  and  Wallacliia,  and  though  it  had  blazed 
more  fiercely  and  more  enduringly  in  Greece,  it  seemed  about  to  be 
extinguished  there  also  by  the  victorious  Turko-Egyptian  forces  of 
Ibrahim  Pasha.  All  that  Mahmud  now  required  from  fortune 
was  immunity  from  attack  by  foreign  powers  during  the  period  of 
transition  through  which  it  was  necessary  for  Turkey  to  pass  be- 
tween the  abolished  old  and  the  yet  uncreated  or  immature  insti- 
tutions under  which  he  designed  her  to  flourish.  In  the  opinion  of 
Count  von  Moltke,  one  of  the  ablest  historians  of  Mahmud's  reign, 
"  if  Turkey  had  enjoyed  ten  years  of  peace  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Janissaries,  Sultan  Mahmud's  military  reforms  might  in  that 
time  have  gained  some  strength,  and,  supported  by  an  army  upon 
which  he  could  depend,  the  Sultan  might  have  carried  out  the  need- 
ful reforms  in  the  administration  of  his  country,  have  infused  new 
life  into  the  dead  branches  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and  made  him- 
self formidable  to  his  neighbors.  All  this  was  prevented  by  Russia, 
which  nipped  the  Sultan's  military  reforms  in  the  bud."  And  the 
strongest  possible  proof  of  the  wisdom  with  which  Mahmud's 
measures  were  planned,  of  the  beneficial  effects  which  they  actually 
produced  in  Turkey,  and  far  greater  benefits  which  they  would 
have  conferred  if  Russia  had  not  hastened  to  attack  her  while  those 
measures  had  scarce  begun  to  ripen,  is  to  be  found  in  the  dis- 
patches of  the  chief  statesmen  of  Russia  during  the  war  of  1828- 
1829,  in  which  they  take  credit  for  their  sagacity  in  discerning  in 
Mahmud  s  reforms  the  necessity  for  prompt  hostilities  on  the  part  of 
Russia,  and  in  which  they  own  that  Turkey  had  displayed,  under 
the  stern  guidance  of  Mahmud,  a  degree  of  energy  and  power 
higher  than  she  had  long  previously  possessed,  and  they  felicitate 
themselves  in  not  having  waited  until  the  new  Turkish  forces,  which 
even  in  their  infancy  were  so  hard  to  conquer,  had  acquired  con- 
sistency and  mature  strength. 

It  was  singularly  unfortunate  for  Sultan  Mahmud  that  only 
a  few  months  before  he  struck  the  decisive  blow  which  destroyed 
tlie  principal  old  military  force  of  Turkey,  there  was  a  change  of 


422  TURKEY 

1826 

emperors  at  St.  Petersburg.  In  Alexander  I.  the  abhorrence  of 
revohttion  had  predominated  over  every  other  sentiment.  He 
therefore  kept  aloof  from  the  side  of  the  Greek  insurgents,  and 
in  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  which  was  clouded  with  melancholy 
and  sickness,  he  was  indisposed  to  the  energetic  action  which 
wars  of  conquest  require  in  a  sovereign.  But  on  December  24, 
1825,  he  was  succeeded  on  the  Russian  throne  by  Nicholas,  a  prince 
of  many  high  merits,  but  a  genuine  representative  of  Russian 
national  feeling,  and,  as  such,  ready  and  willing  for  a  war  in  sup- 
port of  the  Christians  of  the  Greek  Church  against  the  "  old  arch- 
enemy "  of  Muscovy.  Moreover,  the  civil  strife  which  had  broken 
out  at  St.  Petersburg  on  the  accession  of  Nicholas,  at  the  end  of 
1825,  and  the  disquiet  which  had  not  ceased  to  pervade  the  Rus- 
sian nation,  and  especially  the  army,  made  the  statesmen  of  St. 
Petersburg  consider  a  Turkish  war  most  desirable  for  their  own 
empire's  internal  security.  The  negotiations  which  had  been  long 
pending  between  Russia  and  the  Porte  respecting  Servia,  the 
principalities,  and  other  matters,  were  resumed  in  a  far  more 
peremptory  tone  by  the  ministers  of  Nicholas  than  had  previously 
been  employed  toward  the  Ottomans,  In  August  of  1826  (two 
months  after  the  destruction  of  the  Janissaries)  the  Russians  in- 
sisted that  the  Porte  should  forthwith  give  up  certain  fortresses 
in  Asia,  which  were  alleged  to  have  been  ceded  by  the  treaty  of 
Bucharest,  that  the  Moldavians  and  Wallachians  should  be  re- 
stored to  their  full  prvileges,  as  before  the  revolt  of  1821,  and 
that  the  confirmation  of  the  political  rights  of  the  Servians  should 
be  no  longer  delayed.  The  Turks  at  first  received  these  demands 
with  avowed  indignation,  but  in  the  utterly  unprepared  state  of  Tur- 
key at  that  crisis  of  internal  change,  the  Sultan  felt  himself  obliged 
to  give  way,  and  on  October  7,  1826,  the  very  last  day  which 
Russia  had  allowed  for  deliberation,  the  Treaty  or  Convention  of 
Akerman  w^as  signed. 

It  ratified  the  Treaty  of  Bucharest,  and  ordained  that  the 
Moldavians  and  Wallachians  should  thereafter  enjoy  all  the  priv- 
ileges conferred  by  the  fifth  article  of  that  treaty,  and  also  those 
bestowed  by  the  hattisherif  of  1802.  The  future  Hospodars  of 
the  provinces  were  to  be  elected  by  the  Boyars  from  among  their 
own  body  for  a  period  of  seven  years.  No  Hospodar  was  to  be 
deposed  by  the  Porte  without  the  consent  of  Russia.  The  Molda- 
vian Boyars,  who  had  been  implicated  in  the  insurrection  of  1821, 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  423 

1827 

and  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  Russia,  were  now  to  be  at  liberty  to 
return  and  to  resume  their  rank,  estates,  and  possessions.  With 
respect  to  Servia  the  Porte  and  a  body  of  deputies  from  the  Servian 
nation  were  to  settle  the  necessary  regulations  for  the  future  gov- 
ernment of  the  province,  which  were  to  be  forthwith  published  in 
an  imperial  hattisherif,  and  become  part  of  the  treaty  between 
Russia  and  Turkey.  It  was  stated  that  among  the  privileges  of 
the  Servians  which  were  to  be  thus  guaranteed  were  religious 
liberty,  free  choice  of  their  chiefs,  independent  internal  self-govern- 
ment, the  reunion  of  the  districts  that  had  been  detached  from 
Servia,  the  consolidation  of  the  various  imposts  in  a  single  charge, 
freedom  of  commerce,  the  establishment  of  hospitals,  schools,  and 
printing-offices,  and  an  edict  that  no  ^Mohammedans  should  be  al- 
lowed to  reside  in  Servia  except  those  belonging  to  the  garrisons 
of  the  fortresses.  The  Treaty  of  Akerman  contained  many  other 
stipulations,  all  to  the  disadvantage  of  Turkey,  such  as  that  the 
Porte  should  be  obliged  to  indemnify  Russian  merchants  for  de])rc- 
dations  committed  by  the  Barbary  corsairs,  and  that  in  granting  the 
free  navigation  of  the  Black  Sea  to  nations  which  had  not  yet 
obtained  the  right,  the  Porte  would  do  so  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
cause  no  injury  to  Russian  commerce. 

Bitter  as  was  the  humiliation  which  the  necessity  of  accepting 
the  Treaty  of  Akerman  imposed  upon  Mahmud,  he  was  soon  to 
experience  heavier  blows  from  the  same  quarter  and  also  from 
powers  which  he  had  hitherto  regarded  as  sure  friends.  On 
July  6,  1827,  a  treaty  was  signed  at  London  between  Russia, 
England,  and  France,  the  object  of  which  was  declared  to  be  to 
stop  the  effusion  of  blood  and  to  effect  the  reconciliation  of  the 
Turks  and  the  Greeks. 

The  mediation  of  the  three  high  contracting  powers  was  offered 
for  this  purpose,  and  the  basis  of  pacification  was  to  be  the  prac- 
tical independence  of  Greece,  the  Sultan  retaining  only  a  nominal 
sovereignty  and  receiving  a  fixed  annual  tribute  to  be  collected 
by  the  Greeks  themselves.  An  armistice  was  to  be  insisted  on 
before  the  discussion  of  terms,  and  if  the  Porte  rejected  this  inter- 
Acntion  the  three  powers  were  to  form  international  relations  with 
the  Greeks  by  sending  and  receiving  consuls,  and  thereby  recog- 
nizing the  insurgent  prtnince  as  an  independent  state.  Tlie  oft'er 
of  these  terms  was  eagerly  accepted  by  the  Greeks,  then  in  their 
extreme  distress,  but  indignantly  rejected  by  Sultan  Mahmud.     He 


424  TURKEY 

1827 

Stated  that  the  country  which  it  was  proposed  to  withdraw  from 
his  rule  had  for  centuries  formed  part  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  and 
that  those  whom  powers  professing  friendship  to  the  Porte  de- 
signed to  treat  with  and  recognize  as  a  Greek  government  were 
mere  brigands  and  rebels  to  their  lawful  sovereign.  The  Sultan 
appealed  to  history  as  offering  no  example  of  such  interference  in 
violation  of  all  principles  of  legitimate  authority,  and  also  to  the 
law  of  nations,  by  which  every  independent  power  has  a  right  to 
govern  its  own  subjects  without  the  intervention  of  any  foreign 
power  whatever.  He  declared  finally  his  inflexible  resolution  never 
to  renounce  his  rights. 

The  statesmen  of  Christendom  who  interposed  on  behalf  of 
the  Greeks  had  great  difficulty  in  justifying  their  intervention 
under  any  generally  recognized  principle  of  the  law  of  nations,  es- 
pecially after  the  forcible  manner  in  which  the  chief  continental 
Christian  potentates  had  lately  concurred  in  upholding  the  legiti- 
mate right  of  ancient  sovereignty  against  the  revolutionists  of 
Italy  and  Spain.  They  shrank  from  openly  professing  a  broad 
general  principle  that  it  is  lawful  and  laudable  to  aid  the  oppressor 
against  the  oppressed.  The  main  ground  on  which  the  interven- 
tion was  vindicated  was  the  alleged  necessity  of  affording  protection 
to  the  subjects  of  other  powers  who  navigated  the  seas  of  the 
Levant  in  which  for  many  years  atrocious  piracy  had  been  exer- 
cised, while  neither  Turkey  nor  revolted  Greece  w^as,  dc  facto,  either 
able  or  willing  to  prevent  the  excesses  springing  out  of  this  state  of 
anarchy.  But,  unfortunately  for  the  validity  of  this  pretext,  the 
three  powers  intervened  at  the  very  crisis  when  the  Sultan  had  ac- 
quired a  decided  ascendency  in  the  war,  and  when  it  was  clear  that 
in  a  short  time  the  contest  would  be  over  and  the  condition  of  the 
Levant  restored  to  what  it  had  been  for  centuries.  Moreover,  if 
the  suppression  of  piracy  in  the  Turkish  waters  had  been  the  genu- 
ine object  of  England,  France,  and  Russia,  they  might  have  effected 
it  with  a  tenth  part  of  the  force  employed  at  Navarino,  and  in  order 
to  effect  it  there  was  not  the  least  occasion  for  them  to  burn 
the  Sultan's  men-of-war,  or  to  land  troops  to  reduce  his  fortresses 
in  the  Morea. 

On  October  20,  1827,  the  combined  squadrons  of  England, 
France,  and  Russia  entered  the  Bay  of  Navarino,  in  wlu'ch 
the  Turko-Egyptian  fleet  was  moored.  The  avowed  object  of  the 
allies  was  to  compel  Ibrahim  Pasha  to  desist  from  further  hos- 


MAHMUD     II  425 

1827 

tilities  against  the  Greeks.  Their  force  amounted  to  ten  ships  of 
the  Hne,  ten  frigates,  and  some  smaller  vessels.  It  was  much 
superior  to  that  of  the  Sultan,  which,  though  it  comprised  a  large 
flotilla  of  small  barks  and  nineteen  frigates,  presented  only  five 
line-of-battle  ships.  It  is  probable  that  the  ministers  of  England 
and  France  (who  could  have  no  wish  to  see  Turkey  weakened  for 
purposes  of  Russian  ambition)  hoped  to  the  very  last  that  such  an 
imposing  demonstration  of  force  would  awe  the  Sultan  or  his 
officers  into  submission  and  that  Greece  might  thus  be  saved  with- 
out her  old  masters  being  further  injured.  But  the  stern,  unbend- 
ing spirit  that  nerved  Sultan  Mahmud  was  fully  shared  by  his 
admirals,  the  Capudan  Pasha,  Tahir  Pasha,  and  Moharem  Beg. 
An  engagement  was  the  inevitable  result  of  the  entrance  of 
the  allied  fleet  into  Navarino,  an  engagement  in  which  the  Turko- 
Egyptians  fought  for  four  hours  with  desperate  valor,  until  the 
whole  of  the  Sultan's  magnificent  armament  was  destroyed,  except 
a  few  insignificant  barks  that  w'ere  left  stranded  on  the  shore. 
The  consequences  of  the  battle  were  immense,  far,  indeed,  beyond 
what  the  concjuerors  either  designed  or  desired.  It  was  not 
merely  that  the  Greek  question  was  virtually  decided  by  it.  Ibrahim 
gladly  retiring  from  the  Morea  to  Egypt  with  the  chief  part  of 
his  army,  and  a  division  of  French  troops,  under  Marshal  Maison, 
completing  the  deliverance  of  the  Greek  territory,  but  Turkey  was 
by  this  "  untoward  event,"  as  tlie  Duke  of  Wellington  termed  it, 
left  defenseless  before  Russia.  Men  said  that  '*  the  Sultan  had  de- 
stroyed his  own  army,  and  now  his  allies  had  destroyed  his  navy." 
Still  ]\Iahmud  and  his  people  would  not  bend  to  the  stranger  and 
to  the  rebel,  nor  would  the  Divan,  even  after  Navarino,  accept  the 
Treaty  of  London,  which  the  ministers  of  the  three  powers,  espe- 
cially of  Russia,  now  pressed  in  more  and  more  peremptory  tone. 
But  the  Turkish  statesmen  knew  their  peril  and  endeavored  to  in- 
duce the  ambassadors  to  remain  at  their  posts  and  to  communicate 
to  their  respective  courts  the  offers  of  the  Porte  respecting  the 
future  treatment  of  Greece.  These  were  a  complete  pardon  and 
amnesty,  a  remission  of  all  arrears  of  taxes  and  tribute,  a  restora- 
tion of  confiscated  property,  a  reestablishment  of  all  privileges,  and, 
finally,  a  pledge  of  milder  government.  The  ambassadors  refused 
to  accept  any  terms  but  those  of  the  treaty,  and  on  December 
6  left  Cdiistantinople.  An  attempt  was  made  by  tlie  Reis  Effendi 
to   reopen   negotiations,   but   tlie    Ixussian    minister,    to    whom   the 


426  TURKEY 

1827-1828 

communication  was  sent,  returned  no  answer.  Though  Russia 
was  nominally  at  peace  with  all  the  world  (her  Persian  war  hav- 
ing ended  by  a  convention  in  November)  she  was  calling  out 
new  levies  of  conscripts,  concentrating  troops  in  Bessarabia,  and 
collecting  military  stores  and  transports  in  her  harbors  in  the  Black 
Sea  in  readiness  for  an  invasion  of  the  Ottoman  dominions.  There 
were  also  many  topics  of  dispute  between  the  Sultan  and  the  em- 
peror as  to  certain  Asiatic  fortresses  retained  by  Russia  and  those 
never-failing  sources  of  difference,  the  affairs  of  the  principalities 
and  of  Servia.  Convinced  that  his  great  enemy  intended  to  attack 
him  in  the  spring,  the  Sultan  took  the  bold  step  of  being  the  first 
to  declare  war,  and  a  hattisherif  was  issued  on  December  20, 
in  which,  addressing  the  Pashas  and  Ayans  of  his  empire,  the 
Sultan  recited  the  wrongs  which  he  had  endured  from  Russia, 
among  which  he  classed  the  unjust  extortion  of  the  Treaty  of 
Akerman,  and  he  called  on  all  true  Mussulmans  to  show  again  the 
determined  valor  with  which  the  Ottomans  had  in  ancient  times 
established  in  the  world  the  true  religion,  and  to  resist  the  foe 
whose  object  was  to  annihilate  Islam  and  tread  the  people  of  Mo- 
hammed under  foot. 

In  the  ensuing  war  the  vigor  shown  by  Mahmud  astonished 
both  friends  and  foes.  Russia  employed  in  the  first  campaign 
about  100,000  troops  of  all  arms  in  European  Turkey.  The  num- 
ber might  easily  have  been  greater,  1)ut  she  judged  it  prudent  to 
retain  large  armies  in  Poland,  Finland,  and  the  Ukraine,  and  a 
far  less  spirited  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Turks  was  expected 
than  that  which  was  actually  encountered.  In  Asia,  her  general, 
Count  Paskievitch,  led  an  army  30,000  strong  into  the  Turkish 
provinces  besides  having  a  reserve  of  16,000  more.  At  sea  her 
superiority  was  incontestable.  She  had  sixteen  line-of-battle  ships 
in  the  Black  Sea  besides  frigates  and  smaller  vessels,  and  in  the 
Archipelago  she  had  the  fleet  which  had  aided  in  destroying  the 
Turkish  navy  at  Navarino.  Throughout  the  war  this  command 
of  the  sea  was  of  infinite  importance  to  her,  and  in  particular  the 
operations  against  Varna  in  1828,  and  the  decisive  movements  of 
Diebitch  in  1829  were  only  rendered  possible  by  her  uncontrolled 
possession  of  the  Euxine.  ]\Iahmud  had  only  been  able  to  collect 
an  army  of  about  48,000  troops  trained  on  the  new  system.  These 
were  ])rincipally  mere  lads  wIkt  were  selected  in  the  hope  that  their 
prejudices  against  the  Prankish  innovations  would  not  be  so  violent 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  427 

1828 

as  generally  prevailed  among  the  elder  Turks.  The  Prussian  gen- 
eral Baron  Von  Moltke,^  who  served  with  the  Turks  throughout 
the  war,  describes  vividly  the  disheartening  spectacle  which  this 
infant  force  presented  and  its  difference  from  the  aspect  of  the  old 
Ottoman  troops.  "  The  splendid  appearance,  the  beautiful  arms, 
the  reckless  bravery  of  the  old  Moslem  horde  had  disappeared," 
but  the  German  writer  adds,  "  yet  this  new  army  had  one  quality 
which  placed  it  above  the  numerous  host  which  in  former  times 
the  Porte  could  summon  to  the  field — it  obeyed.''  Besides  these 
troops  the  Sultan  was  obliged  to  call  together  the  feudal  and  ir- 
regular forces  of  his  empire,  chiefly  from  Asia,  for  throughout 
European  Turkey  the  deepest  discontent  with  their  sovereign's 
reforms  prevailed  among  •  the  Ottomans.  Bosnia,  a  remarkably 
warlike  and  strongly  Mohammedan  province,  sent  no  troops  at  all, 
and  many  of  the  officers  whom  he  was  obliged  to  employ  were 
attached  to  the  old  order  of  things  and  were  almost  as  bitter  in 
their  disaffection  to  the  Sultan  as  in  their  antipathy  to  the  Russian 
Giaours.  But  the  artillery  force  was  numerous  and  loyal,  and 
the  armed  Turkish  inhabitants  of  the  towns  which  the  enemy  as- 
sailed showed  as  usual  the  greatest  spirit  in  self-defense  and  con- 
tributed greatly  to  the  prolongation  of  the  war,  which  was,  in  its 
first  campaign  at  least,  principally  a  war  of  sieges. 

In  the  operations  of  1828  in  Europe  the  Russians  occupied  the 
principalities  with  little  opposition  and  crossed  the  Danube  early 
in  June,  Braila  was  taken  on  June  15,  but  not  till  after  an 
unexpectedly  long  and  obstinate  defense  which  cost  the  invad- 
ers 4000  men  and  much  valuable  time.  The  Russians  then 
advanced  on  Shumla  and  Varna.  Before  Shumla  they  gained  no 
advantage,  and  suffered  several  severe  blows.  But  Varna  fell  after 
a  gallant  defense,  which  was,  however,  ultimately  tarnislied  by  the 
treachery  of  Yussuf  Pasha,  the  second  in  command,  who  went 
over  to  the  enemy  with  nearly  5000  men.  Silistria  repulsed  the 
Russian  corps  that  besieged  it,  and  altogether,  at  the  close  of  the 
European  campaign,  the  position  of  tlie  combatants  was  such  that 
in  the  words  of  the  ablest  military  critic  of  the  war,''^  "  If  we  con- 
sider the  enormous  sacrifices  tliat  tlie  war  cost  the  Russians  in  1828 
it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  they  or  the  Turks  won  or  lost  it.  It 
remained  for  a  second  campaign  to  decide  the  value  of  the  first." 

^'  The  famous  Prussian  chief  of  staff  in  the  Franco-German  War  of  1870. 

'  -Moltke. 


428  TURKEY 

1828-1829 

In  Asia  the  genius  of  Paskievitch  had  gained  far  less  checkered 
advantages  for  the  Russian  emperor.  Besides  Anapa  (which  was 
captured  by  the  Russian  armament  that  afterward  cooperated  in 
the  siege  of  Varna)  the  Turks  lost  in  Asia  during  1828,  Kars, 
Akhalkhahki,  Hertwitz,  Akhaltzikh,  and  other  important  fortresses. 
They  were  beaten  also  in  a  pitched  battle,  and  Paskievitch  obtained 
an  admirable  position  for  an  advance  into  Asia  Minor  in  the  fol- 
lowing year.  But  it  was  to  the  Danube  and  the  Balkan  that  the 
statesmen  of  Europe  looked  most  attentively,  and  the  general  feel- 
ing (especially  in  Austria)  was  that  Russia  had  been  overrated, 
that  the  Sultan  was  unexpectedly  powerful,  and  that  the  war 
was  likely  to  be  prolonged  without  any  heavy  catastrophe  to  the 
Turkish  Empire.  Russia  herself  felt  keenly  the  need  of  recovering 
her  prestige  by  more  signal  success  in  another  campaign,  which 
she  resolved  to  make  a  decisive  one. 

Accordingly,  in  1829,  more  numerous  and  better  appointed 
forces  crossed  the  Danube,  and  they  were  led  by  Marshal  Diebitch, 
a  general  who  thoroughly  entered  into  the  spirit  in  which  his  im- 
perial master  wished  the  war  to  be  conducted  and  concluded.  "  He 
besieged  one  fortress  and  fought  one  battle,  but  this  brought  him 
into  the  very  heart  of  the  hostile  empire.  He  arrived  there  followed 
by  the  shadow  of  an  army,  but  with  the  reputation  of  irresistible 
success."  Such  is  the  expressive  eulogy  in  which  Baron  Von 
Moltke  epitomizes  the  Turkish  campaign  of  Marshal  Diebitch, 
thence  surnamed  Sabalskanski,  that  is  to  say,  the  Grosser  of  the 
Balkan.  In  Asia  the  Emperor  Nicholas  was  equally  well  served  by 
the  genius  and  bravery  of  Marshal  Paskievitch,  the  victor  of  the 
battle-field  of  Akhaltzikh  and  the  captor  of  Bayezid,  Khart,  and 
Erzerum. 

The  main  Turkish  army  of  Shumla,  emboldened  by  the  partial 
successes  of  the  last  year,  commenced  operations  in  1829  by  at- 
tempting, Alay  17.  to  recover  Pravadi  from  the  Russians.  While 
the  Grand  Vizier's  army  was  engaged  in  this  enterprise  (which 
was  conducted  with  great  valor  but  little  skill  and  admirably 
opposed  by  the  Russian  generals  Roth  and  Rudiger)  Marshal 
Diebitch,  who  had  commenced  the  siege  of  Sili stria  on  May  18, 
moved  the  greater  part  of  the  Russian  force  from  before  that 
fortress,  and  by  a  series  of  rapid  and  brilliant  movements  placed 
himself  in  connection  with  Roth  and  Rudiger  in  a  position  between 
Pravadi  an<!   Shumla.     This  brouQ-lit  on  the  battle  of  Kulevtcha 


M  A  H  M  U  D     II  429 

1829 

on  June  li,  in  which,  after  several  fluctuations  of  fortune,  the 
Turks  were  entirely  defeated,  but  the  Russian  victory  was  caused 
more  by  the  superiority  of  Diebitch  as  a  general  to  Reshid 
Pasha,  the  Turkish  Grand  Vizier,  than  by  any  inferiority  of  the 
Turkish  troops  to  the  Russians.  The  Grand  Vizier  reassembled 
some  of  the  fugitives  at  Shumla,  but  his  force  there  was,  in  his 
judgment,  so  inadequate  to  defend  the  place  that  in  the  belief  that 
the  Russian  general  designed  to  capture  Shumla  before  attempt- 
ing any  forward  movement,  the  Turkish  commander  called  in  the 
greater  part  of  the  detachments  which  were  watching  the  passes 
of  the  Balkan,  a  fatal  error,  which  left  Diebitch  at  liberty  to  break 
through  the  hitherto  impenetrable  barrier.  As  soon  as  Silistria 
fell,  which  was  on  June  26,  Diebitch  was  joined  by  the  Russian 
corps  which  had  previously  been  detained  before  that  important 
fortress  and  he  now  prepared  for  the  daring  march  which  decided 
the  war.  But  even  with  the  advantages  which  the  Russian  marshal's 
generalship  had  secured  the  march  across  the  Balkan  would  not 
have  been  hazarded  if  the  Black  Sea  had  not  then  been  a  Russian 
lake,  and  if  friendly  fleets  had  not  been  stationed  both  in  that 
sea  and  in  the  ^gean  ready  to  cooperate  with  such  troops  as  the 
generals  of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  might  lead  across  the  moun- 
tains to  either  coast.  Sizeboli  on  the  western  shore  of  the  Euxine 
and  to  the  south  of  the  Balkan  chain  had  been  surprised  and  oc- 
cupied by  a  Russian  armament  in  February,  and  in  July  a  squadron 
of  the  imperial  fleet  under  Admiral  Greig,  with  a  great  number  of 
vessels  carrying  stores  and  provisions,  cast  anchor  in  the  Bay  of 
Burgas,  so  that  Diebitch's  army  might  move  lightly  equipped  and 
unincumbered  by  wagons  through  the  mountains,  and  when  it  came 
down  from  them  find  all  things  that  were  necessary  for  its  support 
and  a  secure  basis  for  further  operations.  The  losses  of  the  Rus- 
sians during  the  campaign  had  been  so  enormous  (far  more  per- 
ishing by  privation  and  disease  than  in  battle)  that  after  leaving 
10,000  men  to  watch  the  Grand  Vizier  in  Shumla,  Diebitch  could 
not  muster  more  than  30,000  for  his  advance  through  the  Balkan 
on  the  Turkish  capital.  But  he  reckoned  justly  on  the  moral  effect 
already  caused  by  the  battle  of  Kulevtcha  and  the  capture  of  Silis- 
tria, and  on  the  still  greater  panic  which  the  sight  of  a  Russian  army 
to  the  south  of  the  trusted  barrier  would  produce.  It  was  known 
that  the  greatest  excitement  and  tlisaffection  prevailed  in  Constan- 
tinople and  the  other  great  Turkish  cities,  and  among  the  com- 


430  TURKEY 

1829 

manders  of  the  troops  in  Albania  and  Rumelia.  Emboldened  by 
these  considerations,  Diebitch  suddenly  and  secretly  moved  his 
columns  on  July  ii  from  the  neighborhood  of  Shumla  upon 
the  gorges  of  the  Balkan,  and  in  nine  days  he  reunited  his 
force  to  the  south  of  the  mountains.  The  feeble  Turkish  detach- 
ments which  were  encountered  in  the  passes  offered  but  a  desultory 
and  trifling  resistance.  As  the  Russian  soldiers  came  down  from 
the  heights  of  the  eastern  Balkan  and  saw  "  the  flags  of  their  ships 
flying  over  the  broad  shining  surface  of  the  Bay  of  Burgas," 
a  general  shout  of  joy  burst  from  the  ranks.  Their  progress  was 
now  one  continued  triumph,  but  a  triumph  rendered  very  hazardous 
by  the  ravages  of  dysentery  and  plague  which  the  invaders  brought 
along  with  them  and  which  reduced  their  numbers  by  hundreds 
and  by  thousands.  But  this  weakness  w^as  unknown  to  the  Turks, 
who  believed  that  at  least  100,000  men  had  crossed  the  Balkan 
and  that  they  must  have  destroyed  the  Grand  Vizier's  army  before 
they  left  Shumla.  An  officer  whom  the  Pasha  of  Missivri  sent 
forward  to  reconnoiter  Diebitch's  force  came  back  with  these  words : 
"  It  were  easier  to  count  the  leaves  of  the  forest  than  the  heads  of 
the  enemy."  Missivri,  Burgas,  and  the  important  post  of  Aidos 
were  occupied  by  the  Russians  almost  without  opposition.  Strik- 
ing inland  toward  Adrianople  Diebitch  pursued  his  resolute  career, 
and  on  August  20  the  ancient  capital  of  European  Turkey  capit- 
ulated to  a  pestilence-stricken  and  exhausted  army  of  less  than 
20,000  Russians.  With  admirable  judgment,  as  well  as  hu- 
manity, Diebitch,  in  his  occupation  of  the  Turkish  cities  and 
throughout  his  march  in  Rumelia,  took  the  most  effectual  measures 
for  protecting  the  inhabitants  from  the  sliglitest  military  violence. 
The  Christian  population  received  the  Russians  with  enthusiasm, 
and  even  the  Moslems  returned  to  their  peaceable  occupations  when 
they  found  that  there  was  full  protection  for  property,  person,  and 
honor,  and  that  neither  their  local  self-government  nor  their  re- 
ligious rites  were  subjected  to  interruption  or  insult.  Diebitch  thus 
saved  his  sickly  and  scanty  army  from  being  engaged  in  a  guerrilla 
warfare  in  which  it  must  inevitably  have  been  destroyed,  and  he 
continued  to  impose  upon  the  terrified  enemy  by  the  appearance 
of  strengtli  and  1)y  well-simulated  confidence,  amid  rapidly  increas- 
ing weakness,  and  the  deepest  and  most  serious  alarm.  He  could 
not  hope  to  keep  up  the  delusion  of  his  adversaries  about  the 
number  of  his  army  if  he  advanced  much  nearer  to  the  capital, 


MAHMUD     II  431 

1829 

and  the  amount  of  the  Turkish  troops  now  collected  in  Constan- 
tinople, the  strength  of  the  fortifications  of  that  city,  and  the  fanatic 
bravery  of  its  armed  population  (which  the  appearance  of  a  Russian 
army  would  be  sure  to  rouse  into  action)  made  all  hope  of  an 
ultimate  success  by  main  force  utterly  chimerical.  Moreover,  in 
his  rear  the  Vizier's  army  that  held  Shumla  was  superior  to  the 
Russian  corps  of  observation  left  in  front  of  it,  and  on  his  flank 
there  was  Mustapha,  the  Pasha  of  Scodra,  with  30,000  excellent 
Albanian  troops.  This  officer  had  hitherto  refused  to  obey  orders 
from  the  Porte,  but  it  was  impossible  for  Diebitch  to  reckon  on 
the  continuance  of  such  insubordinate  inactivity.  The  only  alterna- 
tives for  Diebitch  were  to  obtain  a  peace  or  to  be  destroyed,  and 
in  order  for  him  to  obtain  peace  it  was  necessary  to  keep  up  the 
boldest  semblance  of  waging  war.  Fortunately  for  him,  not  only 
were  the  panic  and  disorder  at  Constantinople  extreme,  but  both 
the  Turkish  statesmen  and  the  ministers  of  the  European  powers 
there  knew  notliing  of  the  real  state  of  his  army.  An  insurrection 
of  the  partisans  of  the  Janissaries  had  been  organized,  but  Sultan 
Mahmud  was  beforehand  with  them,  and  it  was  suppressed  by 
Khosru  Pasha,  his  chief  of  the  police,  by  a  wholesale  execution, 
with  but  little  heed  as  to  how  many  hundreds  of  innocent  persons 
suff'ered,  provided  only  the  guilty  did  not  escape.  But  though 
discontent  was  thus  silenced,  it  was  known  to  be  widespread  and 
intense,  and  a  general  outbreak  was  daily  expected  in  which  it  was 
too  probable  that  Constantinople  would  be  destroyed  by  her  own 
populace,  aided  by  the  mutinous  bands  of  soldiery  who  had  escaped 
to  the  capital  from  the  defeated  armies  and  captured  fortresses. 
Even  the  European  ambassadors  at  Pera  believed  that  Diebitch 
was  at  the  head  of  60,000  efficient  troops,  and  they  joined  the  Sul- 
tan's ministers  in  urging  him  to  save  the  empire  from  total  destruc- 
tion by  negotiating  instantly  with  the  Russian  general  and  ob- 
taining peace  at  almost  any  sacrifice.  iMahmud  is  said  long  to  have 
resisted  their  pusillanimous  advice,  and  well  would  it  have  been 
for  him  and  his  empire  if  a  single  faithful  friend  had  then  been  near 
him  to  support  his  sovereign  with  manly  counsel.  At  length  the 
Sultan  yielded  to  the  importunities  of  all  around  him,  and  pleni- 
potentiaries were  sent  to  the  Russian  camp,  who  concluded  with 
Marshal  Diebitch  on  August  j8,  1829.  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople. 

By  this  treaty  Russia  obtained  the  sovereignty  of  part  of  the 
left  bank  of  the  Lower  Danube    and  of  the  Sulina  mouth  of  that 


432  TURKEY 

1829-1830 

river.  She  was  thus  enabled  to  control  that  important  artery  of  the 
commerce  of  Central  Europe,  especially  of  Austria.  Her  other 
European  conquests  were  restored,  and  also  those  in  Asia,  with  the 
material  exception  that  the  Russian  emperor  retained  as  part  of 
his  dominions  the  important  fortresses  of  Anapa,  Akhaltzikh,  Akhal- 
khaliki,  and  several  valuable  districts,  and  the  treaty  recognized, 
by  way  of  recital,  that  "  Georgia,  Imeritia,  Mingrelia,  Gouriel  and 
several  other  provinces  of  the  Caucasus,  had  long  been  annexed  in 
perpetuity  to  the  Empire  of  Russia."  A  separate  article  (but  declared 
to  be  read  as  part  of  the  treaty)  stipulated  in  favor  of  the  Molda- 
vians and  Wallachians,  that  the  Hospodars  should  be  thenceforth 
elected  for  life,  that  no  Turkish  officer  should  interfere  in  their 
affairs,  and  that  no  Mussulman  should  be  allowed  to  reside  in  any 
part  of  their  territories.  Nothing  but  a  nominal  sovereignty,  and 
an  annual  tribute,  was  reserved  to  the  Porte;  and  the  tribute  was 
not  to  be  exacted  for  the  two  years  following  the  war. 

In  behalf  of  the  Servians,  the  sixth  article  of  the  Treaty  of 
Adrianople  provided  that  all  the  clauses  of  the  separate  act  of  the 
Convention  of  Akerman  relative  to  Servia,  should  immediately  be 
carried  into  effect,  and  ratified  by  a  hattisherif  of  the  Sultan, 
which  was  to  be  communicated  to  the  court  of  St.  Petersburg 
within  a  month.  The  passage  of  the  Dardanelles  was  to  be  open 
to  Russian  merchant  vessels ;  an  indemnity  for  injuries  done  to  Rus- 
sian commerce  was  to  be  paid  in  eighteen  months,  and  another  sum, 
amounting  to  nearly  $25,000,000,  was  to  be  paid  to  the  Rus- 
sian Government  for  the  costs  of  the  war.  Moreover,  by  the 
tenth  article  of  the  treaty,  the  Sultan  declared  his  adhesion  to  the 
stipulations  of  the  Treaty  of  London,  and  of  a  subsequent  conven- 
tion of  the  three  powers  respecting  Greece.  The  result  of  this 
branch  of  the  negotiations  was  the  erection  of  Greece  into  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom,  comprising  all  Continental  Greece  south  of  a  line 
drawn  from  the  Gulf  of  Arta  to  the  Gulf  of  Volo,  thus  leaving 
Thessaly  and  Albania  as  the  Sultan's  frontier  provinces.  The 
islands  of  Euboea,  the  northern  Sporades,  and  the  Cyclades  also 
became  members  of  the  new  state,  the  Ionian  Islands  remaining 
under  British  government,  while  Crete  and  the  islands  off  the  Thra- 
cian  and  Asiatic  coasts  were  still  allowed  to  appertain  to  Turkey. 

In  the  year  after  the  Treaty  of  Adrianople  the  French  seized 
and  occupied  Algiers  (July  4,  1830),  which,  though  practically  in- 
dependent, had  still  acknowledged  the  titular  supremacy  of  the  Sul- 


M  A  H  M  U  D     II  433 

1830-1832 

tan,  and  was  governed  by  a  Dey  who  professed  to  be  his  officer. 
The  injury  which  the  conquest  of  a  Mohammedan  province  by  the 
Prankish  Giaours  inflicted  on  the  general  authority  of  Mahmud  in 
the  world  of  Islam  w^as  increased  by  the  proclamation  of  the  French 
general,  Marshal  Bourmont,  who  stated  that  he  came  to  deliver 
Algeria  from  the  yoke  of  the  Turks.  The  Sultan  was  in  no  con- 
dition to  interpose,  or  even  to  remonstrate,  for  far  worse  evils  and 
convulsions  in  the  integral  parts  of  the  Ottoman  empire  showed  how 
violent  was  the  shock  which  it  had  sustained  from  the  Russian  war, 
and  how  much  the  spirit  of  disaffection  and  revolt  had  been  in- 
creased by  the  issue  of  that  contest.  The  unfortunate  are  generally 
unpopular,  and  tlie  very  pride  of  the  Turks  made  them  impute  the 
disasters  of  their  sovereign  to  his  Frankish  innovations  and  aban- 
donment of  the  old  usages  of  the  empire.  The  bonds  of  loyalty  to 
the  head  of  the  house  of  Othman  grew  weaker  in  proportion  to  the 
strength  of  Mohammedan  feeling;  and,  of  the  numerous  insurrec- 
tions that  broke  out  in  1830,  and  the  two  following  years,  in  Euro- 
pean Turkey,  none  were  more  violent  than  those  of  the  eminently 
warlike  and  fanatic  Bosnians,  and  of  the  Mussulman  tribes  of  Al- 
bania. They  were  quelled  by  the  resolute  spirit  of  Mahmud,  and 
the  abilities  of  his  Vizier,  Reshid  Pasha ;  but  they  exhausted  more 
and  more  the  resources  of  the  heavily-burdened  state,  Asia  was  not 
much  less  mutinous,  but  it  was  in  Egypt  that  the  most  deadly  storm 
was  gathering.  Mohammed  Ali  had  resolved  on  founding  an 
hereditary  dominion  on  the  ruins  of  the  apparently  doomed  empire 
of  the  Sultan.  He  had  restored  his  navy  after  its  destruction  at 
Navarino ;  he  possessed  a  veteran  and  admirably  disciplined  army, 
chiefly  officered  by  Frenchmen;  and,  above  all,  he  had  a  general  of 
science,  experience,  prudence,  and  energy,  in  his  son,  the  celebrated 
Ibrahim  Pasha.  He  had  obtained  the  Pashalic  of  Crete  from  the 
Porte,  but  had  been  refused  that  of  Syria.  He  determined  to  take  it 
by  force.  A  personal  quarrel  with  the  Pasha  of  Acre  gave  him  a 
pretext  for  attacking  that  officer.  The  command  of  the  Sultan  that 
this  civil  war  between  his  servants  should  cease  was  contemptuously 
disregarded,  and  Ibrahim  besieged  Acre  with  an  army  of  40,000 
men,  and  a  fleet  of  five  ships  of  the  line,  and  several  frigates.  The 
key  of  Syria  was  captured  by  him  on  May  27,  1832,  and  for 
seven  years  Alohammed  Ali  was  tlie  real  sovereign  of  that  important 
country.  The  disafi'ected  armies  of  raw  recruits,  badly  officered, 
and  worse  generaled,  which  the  Sultan  sent  against  the  rebel  Egyp- 


434  TURKEY 

1832-1833 

tian  chief  were  beaten  by  Ibrahim  in  three  great  battles,  at  Ems,  in 
Upper  Syria,  on  July  6,  1832  ;  at  Beylan  (in  Cilicia,  near  the  ancient 
battle-field  of  Issus),  on  the  29th  of  the  same  month,  and  at  Konieh, 
in  Asia  Minor,  on  October  29.  The  positions  of  these  places 
indicate  the  rapid  progress  and  bold  designs  of  the  Egyptian 
commander,  who  seemed  to  annex  Asia  Minor  to  Mohammed's 
dominions  with  the  same  ease  as  Syria,  and  whose  advance  upon 
Constantinople  in  the  coming  spring  appeared  to  be  inevitable  and 
irresistible.  In  this  agony  of  his  house  and  empire  the  Sultan 
sought  aid  first  from  England,  but  none  unhappily  was  accorded, 
and  the  answer  returned  to  the  Turkish  application  was  an  expres- 
sion of  regret  that  England  had  not  the  means  of  supplying  the 
required  assistance.  Russia  was  watching  eagerly  for  the  oppor- 
tunity which  English  folly  thus  threw  in  her  way.  Her  troops,  and 
her  transports,  and  her  ships  of  war  were  ready  at  Sebastopol  and 
Odessa,  and  when  at  last  Mahmud  humbled  himself  to  express  to 
his  ancient  enemy  a  wish  for  a  protecting  force,  prompt  messengers 
were  dispatched  to  the  great  Crimean  depot  of  Muscovite  power, 
and  a  Russian  squadron  of  four  ships  of  the  line  set  sail  from  Sebas- 
topol and  landed  6000  of  the  emperor's  troops  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Bosphorus,  on  February  20,  1833. 

Meanwhile,  the  forward  march  of  Ibrahim  had  been  tempor- 
arily stayed  by  a  messenger  from  Admiral  Roussin,  whom  the 
French  Government  had  sent  with  a  fleet  to  aid  the  Sultan.  A 
negotiation  was  entered  into,  but  broken  off  after  a  few  days,  and 
in  the  beginning  of  March  Ibrahim'  again  pointed  his  columns 
toward  the  Bosphorus.  But  a  second  Russian  armament  from 
Odessa  now  had  reached  those  straits,  and  on  April  5,  12,000  sol- 
diers of  the  Emperor  Nicholas  were  encamped  on  tlie  Giant's  Moun- 
tain, near  Scutari.  Ibrahim  felt  that  any  further  advance  on  his 
])art  would  be  madness,  and  occupied  himself  in  procuring  the 
largest  possi1)le  increase  to  his  father's  power  in  the  negotiations 
that  followed,  in  which  England  and  France  (now  thoroughly 
alarmed  at  the  advantages  gained  by  Russia)  took  part  with  anxious 
zeal. 

The  terms  of  compulsory  reconciliation  between  the  Sultan  and 
his  over-powerful  vassal  were  embodied  in  a  firman  of  May  6,  1833, 
by  which  the  Porte  confirmed  Mohammed  Ali  in  his  governments  of 
Crete  and  Egypt,  and  added  to  them  those  of  Jerusalem,  Tripoli, 
Aleppo,  Damascus,  and  Adana.     This  was  virtually  a  cession  to  the 


M  A  H  M  U  D     1 1  435 

1833-1839 

Egyptian  of  nearly  all  the  countries  which  the  victories  of  Selim  I. 
had  incorporated  with  Turkey,  besides  the  important  island  of 
Candia,  which  it  had  cost  the  Porte  a  twenty  years'  war  to  wrest 
from  Venice.  At  such  a  bitter  cost  was  Mahmud  compelled  to 
purchase  the  removal  from  Asia  Minor  of  his  insurgent  Pasha ;  and 
before  he  could  obtain  the  withdrawal  of  his  equally  formidable 
Russian  friends,  he  was  obliged  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Unkiar 
Iskelessi  on  July  8,  1833,  which,  by  its  public  articles,  bound 
him  to  an  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  with  Russia,  and  by  a  still 
more  important  secret  article  provided  that  the  Ottoman  Porte 
should,  when  required  by  the  Russian  emperor,  close  the  straits  of 
the  Dardanelles  against  the  armed  vessels  of  all  other  foreign 
powers. 

It  was  the  general  opinion  in  Europe  at  this  time  that  Turkey 
was  irretrievably  ruined,  and  that  the  attempts  of  her  reforming 
sovereign  to  resuscitate  her  power  had  been  the  mere  galvanizing 
of  a  corpse.  Many,  indeed,  thought  that  Mahmud  had  accelerated 
the  empire's  downfall  by  destroying  the  lingering  sparks  of  vitality 
in  the  old  system,  without  being  able  to  replace  them  by  new  life. 
And,  indeed,  had  Mahmud  not  been  a  man  of  the  noblest  energy, 
and  of  high  genius,  he  might  well  have  despaired  of  his  country 
after  such  a  Cannse  as  Konieli.  First,  the  foreign  invader,  and 
next,  the  home-rebel  had  crushed  his  armies,  had  rent  from  him  his 
dominions,  and  had  bowed  him  beneath  the  humiliation  of  treaties, 
worse  even  than  those  of  Carlo witz  and  Kainardji.  But  Mahmud 
was  one  of  the  few  really  great  men  whom  disappointment  in  a 
well-judged  enterprise  unnerves  not,  but  rather  rouses  to  more  vig- 
orous exertion.  He  continued,  amid  good  repute  and  evil  repute, 
to  reorganize  the  troops,  the  fleets,  and  the  finances  of  his  empire, 
to  encourage  education,  to  promote  commerce,  to  give  security  for 
person  and  property,  to  repress  intolerant  distinctions,  and  to  re- 
move by  degrees  the  most  galling  of  the  burdens  and  prohibitions 
which  pressed  upon  his  Christian  subjects.  The  strong  and  almost 
unanimous  testimony  which  English  travelers  from  tlie  East  bore  in 
favor  of  the  policy  of  the  Turkish  Sultan,  and  their  statements  re- 
specting the  rapid  improvement  of  the  inhabitants  of  his  empire, 
caused  a  marked  reaction  in  the  public  feeling  of  England  with 
respect  to  Turkey.  When  war  broke  out  again  in  1839  between 
the  Sultan  and  the  Egyptian  Pasha,  Turkey  was  supported  by  Eng- 
land, not  only  for  the  sake  of  English  interests,  but  with  the  respect- 


436  TURKEY 

1839 

ful  cordiality  which  is  only  felt  toward  those  who  evince  a  sense  of 
self-respect,  and  who  prove  that  they  are  ready  and  willing  to  aid 
themselves.  This  new  war  was  caused  by  the  indignation  of  Mah- 
mud  at  the  undisguised  designs  of  Mohammed  Ali  to  convert  the 
vast  provinces  which  he  governed  into  an  hereditary  monarchy  for 
his  own  family.  Mohammed  declined  to  continue  the  payment  of 
tribute  to  the  Porte,  and  his  removal  of  the  Turkish  guards  from  the 
Prophet's  tomb,  and  substitution  of  his  own  Arab  soldiers,  con- 
stituted a  still  more  open  denial  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  Sultan  as 
chief  of  Islam.  Attempts  at  negotiation  only  led  to  mutual  com- 
plaints and  recriminations,  and  the  Sultan  at  last  sent  a  final  sum- 
mons to  the  Pasha,  requiring  him  to  reestablish  the  Turkish  guards 
at  the  tomb  of  the  Prophet,  to  pay  regularly  his  tribute,  and  to 
renounce  all  sovereignty  over  Egypt,  save  so  far  as  the  Sultan  might 
concede  it  to  him.  On  obedience  to  this  being  refused,  Mahmud 
directed  his  generals  and  admirals  to  attack  his  refractory  vassal.  A 
numerous  and  well-appointed  Turkish  army  had  been  collected  at 
Bir  on  the  Euphrates,  and  by  the  strenuous  exertions  of  many  years 
a  well-disciplined  and  well-manned  fleet  of  thirty-six  vessels  of 
different  rates,  twelve  being  ships  of  the  line,  had  been  formed  and 
collected  in  t!ie  harbor  of  Constantinople.  But  venality  and  treach- 
ery baffled  all  the  preparations  of  the  Ottoman  sovereign.  When 
his  army  under  Hafiz  Pasha  met  the  Egyptian  under  Ibrahim,  at 
Nezib,  on  June  25,  1839,  whole  battalions  and  squadrons,  whose 
officers  had  taken  the  gold  of  Egypt,  deserted  the  Sultan's 
standard  and  ranged  themselves  with  the  enemy.  The  remainder 
was  hopelessly  routed,  with  the  total  loss  of  artillery,  camp,  bag- 
gage, and  military  stores  of  every  description.  Still  fouler  was  the 
fate  of  the  fleet.  The  Capudan  Pasha,  the  infamous  Ahmed  Fevzy, 
on  June  8  knelt  before  his  imperial  benefactor,  iMahmud,  re- 
ceived the  Sultan's  parting  benediction,  and  with  solemn  oaths 
renewed  his  assurances  of  loyalty  and  devotion.  On  July  6  fol- 
lowing the  imperial  fleet  was  seen  in  full  sail  for  Alexandria,  and 
on  the  13th  the  traitor  who  commanded  it  brought  it  into  the  port  of 
that  city  and  delivered  it  up  to  Mohammed  Ali.  It  is  some  consola- 
tion to  know  that  Sultan  Mahmud  was  spared  the  anguish  of  hearing 
of  these  calamities,  especially  of  Ahmed  Fevzy's  ingratitude.  His 
health  had  long  been  undermined  by  continued  anxiety  and  toil.  On 
July  I,  1839,  before  the  messenger  from  Nezib  reached  Constanti- 
nople, Sultan  Muhmud  II.  died. 


MAHMUDII  437 

1839-1841 

Before  we  consider  the  personal  qualities  of  his  successor, 
Sultan  Abdul  Med j id,  it  will  be  convenient  first  to  trace  rapidly  to 
its  conclusion  the  Egyptian  war,  which  seemed  to  darken  with  such 
fatal  disasters  the  opening  of  the  young  sovereign's  reign.  A  dif- 
ference of  opinion  as  to  the  amount  of  power  which  should  be 
secured  to  Mohammed  Ali  existed  for  a  time  between  France  and  the 
other  great  powers  of  Europe,  which  at  one  period  threatened  to 
cause  a  general  war.  England,  France,  and  Austria  concurred  as 
to  the  necessity  of  arranging  the  Turko-Egyptian  question,  and  of 
not  leaving  to  Russia  an  opportunity  of  sole  intervention,  such  as 
that  which  she  gained  in  1833.  But  France  was  no  party  to  the 
treaty  of  July  15,  1840,  between  Turkey,  England,  Russia,  Austria, 
and  Prussia,  which  defined  the  terms  on  which  the  disputes  between 
the  Pasha  and  his  sovereign  were  to  be  arranged.  Mohammed  x\li 
(who  probably  expected  aid  from  France)  refused  for  some  time  to 
accede  to  the  requisitions  of  Turkey  and  the  four  powers,  and  an 
English  fleet,  under  Admirals  Stopford  and  Napier,  proceeded  to 
wrest  from  him  his  strongholds  on  the  Syrian  coast.  Beirut  was 
bombarded  on  August  29,  1840,  its  Egyptian  garrison  was  ex- 
pelled, and  the  Turkish  troops,  which  had  been  conveyed  on  board 
the  English  fleet,  took  possession  of  the  ruins  in  the  Sultan's 
name.  Acre  was  bombarded  and  captured  on  November  3.  The 
other  Syrian  fortresses  fell  rapidly;  and,  aided  by  the  British  sea- 
men and  marines,  and  also  by  the  native  populations  (which  had 
found  their  Egyptian  bondage  far  more  grievous  than  the  old 
Turkish  rule),  the  Sultan's  forces  were,  by  the  close  of  November, 
completely  masters  of  Syria.  jMenaced  in  Alexandria  with  the 
fate  of  Acre,  the  Pasha  at  last  gave  way.  Fie  restored  the  Sultan's 
fleet.  He  withdrew  his  forces  from  Candia  and  from  the  few 
Asiatic  districts  which  they  still  retained,  and  negotiations,  in  which 
France  (now  directed  by  the  wise  statesmanship  of  Guizot)  took 
part,  were  opened  for  the  final  settlement  of  these  long-continued 
dissensions.  The  Sultan's  final  firman  (February  13,  1841)  gave 
and  confirmed  to  Mohammed  Ali  for  himself  and  descendants  in  the 
direct  line  the  Pashalic  of  Egypt,  one-fourth  of  its  revenues  to  be 
paid  as  tribute  to  the  Porte,  and  certain  naval  and  military  con- 
tingents to  be  supplied  on  demand.  In  the  summer  of  the  same 
year  a  convention  of  great  importance  with  regard  to  the  right  of 
Turkey  to  control  the  navigation  of  the  Dardanelles  was  agreed  to 
by  the  representatives  of  England,  Austria,  France,  Prussia,  Russia, 


438  TURKEY 

1841 

and  the  Porte.  The  first  and  second  articles  of  this  convention, 
which  was  signed  at  London  on  July  13,  1841,  were  as  follows: 

"Art.  I. — His  Highness,  the  Sultan,  on  the  one  part,  declares 
that  he  is  firmly  resolved  to  maintain  for  the  future  the  principle 
invariably  established  as  the  ancient  rule  of  his  empire,  and  in 
virtue  of  which  it  has  at  all  times  been  prohibited  for  the  ships  of 
war  of  foreign  powers  to  enter  the  Straits  of  the  Dardanelles  and  of 
the  Bosphorus;  and  so  long  as  the  Porte  is  at  peace,  his  Highness 
will  admit  no  foreign  ships  of  war  into  the  said  straits. 

"  Art.  n. — And  their  Majesties,  the  Queen  of  the  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  the  Emperor  of  Austria, 
King  of  Hungary  and  Bohemia,  the  King  of  the  French,  the  King 
of  Prussia,  and  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  on  the  other  part, 
engage  to  respect  this  determination  of  the  Sultan,  and  to  conform 
themselves  to  the  principle  above  declared." 


Chapter    XXV 

ABDUL    MEDJID    AND   THE    CRIMEAN    WAR 

1 839- 1 856 

MAHMUD  II.  was  succeeded  by  his  eldest  son  Abdul 
Medjid,  a  boy  of  only  sixteen  years.  Mahmud  had  en- 
deavored to  give  his  children  a  careful  education  on 
Western  European  models,  and  the  new  Sultan,  though  ignorant  of 
affairs  of  state,  was  fitted  by  training  as  well  as  by  character  to 
sympathize  with  the  reform  movement  inaugurated  by  his  great 
father.  Unfortunately,  however,  Abdul  Medjid  was  wholly  lack- 
ing in  the  strength  of  character  and  the  ability  which  had  enabled 
Mahmud  to  persevere  in  his  plans  even  in  the  face  of  the  greatest 
opposition  from  his  own  subjects  and  in  spite  of  a  series  of  crushing 
disasters.  Well  meaning  as  the  new  Sultan  undoubtedly  was,  he 
was  weak,  frivolous,  and  vacillating,  without  strength  of  will  or 
purpose,  and,  after  a  few  spasmodic  assertions  of  his  ideas,  he  was 
content  for  the  most  part  to  leave  the  affairs  of  his  empire  in  the 
hands  of  his  ministers.  Fortunately  for  Turkey,  the  Sultan  was 
well  served  by  his  able  Viziers  Reshid,  Aali,  and  Fuad,  and  by  his 
great  general  Omar  Pasha,  while  for  many  years  the  remarkable 
influence  of  the  English  ambassador,  Stratford  Canning,  lent 
strength  and  wisdom  to  the  counsels  of  the  Porte.  But,  in  spite  of 
their  favorable  influences  the  fact  remains  that  while  the  changes 
begun  by  Mahmud  II.  had  a  lasting  efl^ect  on  the  organization  of 
the  empire,  the  much  heralded  and  bepraiscd  reforms  of  Abdul 
IVIedjid  have  remained  for  the  most  part  dead  letters  to  this  day. 
A  detailed  account  of  the  reforms  brought  by  IMahmud  II. 
v.'ould  be  out  of  place  in  this  sketch  of  Turkisli  history.  It  is  pos- 
si])le  to  note  only  a  few  of  tlie  lasting  changes  which  were  momen- 
tous for  the  future  welfare  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  destruction 
of  the  Janissaries  in  1826  removed  the  chief  obstacle  in  the 
Sultan's  way  and  opened  the  path  for  a  reorganization  of  the 
empire  along  European  lines.  In  rapid  succession  a  series  of  edicts 
were  issued,  sweeping  away  the  mass  of  medieval  forms  and  abuses 
which  had  outlived  their  day  and  remained  only  to  clog  and  weaken 

439 


440  TURKEY 

1826-1839 

the  organization  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  cumbersome  and 
enormously  expensive  palace  system  was  reformed,  expenses  cut 
down,  slaves  sold,  and  many  attendants  dismissed.  In  the  provinces 
the  Pashas  were  deprived  of  their  powers  of  life  and  death,  and 
brought  once  more  into  complete  dependence  on  the  central  govern- 
ment. The  court  of  confiscations  was  abolished,  though  the  Sultan 
still  continued  from  time  to  time  to  seize  the  property  of  disgraced 
officials.  European  fashions  of  dress  were  introduced,  the  Sultan 
himself  setting  the  example,  while  the  cumbersome  turban  was  su- 
perseded, save  for  the  Ulema,  by  the  lighter  but  hardly  more  prac- 
tical fez.  In  spite  of  the  precepts  of  the  Koran  a  new  coinage  was 
introduced  bearing  the  effigy  of  the  Sultan,  and  pictures  of  Mahmud 
were  hung  up  everywhere.  A  system  of  passports  was  introduced, 
permanent  representatives  sent  to  foreign  courts,  and  a  quarantine 
system  was  established. 

In  dealing  with  financial  affairs  Mahmud  showed  himself  at 
his  best.  He  endeavored  to  relieve  the  oppressed  Raya  or  Christian 
peasant  by  a  fixed  and  more  equable  apportionment  of  the  taxes. 
The  vexatious  charges  and  purveyances  which  officials  traveling 
through  the  provinces  had  been  accustomed  to  levy  on  the  people 
were  abolished,  and  all  collections  of  money  save  those  made  at  the 
regular  half  yearly  periods  were  denounced  as  burdensome  and 
abusive.  By  a  firman  of  1834  the  karadj  or  capitation  tax,  which 
was  paid  by  the  Christians  as  exemption  from  military  service,  was 
reformed  and  freed  from  the  abuses  and  extortions  that  had  long 
been  associated  with  it.  In  the  future  the  apportionment  was  to  be 
made  by  commissions  composed  of  the  Cadis,  the  Mohammedan 
governors,  and  the  Ayans  or  municipal  chiefs  of  the  Rayas.  Fi- 
nally some  attempt  was  made  to  reform  the  central  administration 
and  to  reduce  its  expenses  by  the  abolition  of  a  host  of  sinecures. 

The  chief  changes  inaugurated  by  Mahmud  were,  however, 
those  connected  with  the  reorganization  of  the  military  system.  The 
old  feudal  system,  with  its  Ziamets  and  Timars  held  in  return  for 
military  serv'ice,  had  long  ceased  to  be  effective,  and  the  holders  no 
longer  furnished  any  real  strength  to  the  army.  Indeed  many  of 
the  fiefs  were  not  even  held  by  Mohammedans,  but  had  fallen  into 
the  hands  of  Jewish  and  Christian  usurers.  Again,  the  core  of  the 
old  army,  the  Janissaries,  were  now  swept  away,  and  Mahmud  had 
to  depend  on  such  hasty  levies  as  religious  zeal  and  attachment  to 
the  house  of  Othman  could  bring-  to  his  standard.      ]\Iahmud  took 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  441 

1826-1839 

the  bold  step  of  a  sweeping  confiscation  of  the  Ziamets  and  Timars, 
now  useless  for  mihtary  purposes,  and  thus  added  greatly  to  the 
resources  of  the  crown.  The  new  army  was  drawn  from  the  Mo- 
hammedan population  by  volunteering  and  conscription,  and  was 
drilled  and  armed  in  the  European  fashion.  In  none  of  Mahmud's 
reforms  was  the  immediate  effect  more  disheartening.  So  sweep- 
ing a  change  could  not  show  good  results  at  once,  and  defeat  after 
defeat  in  the  Russian  and  Egyptian  wars  had  to  be  sustained  before 
the  new  organization  could  prove  its  real  value.  Indeed,  Sultan 
Mahmud  died  without  seeing  the  completion  of  the  reorganization, 
and  it  remained  for  his  successor  to  carry  out  the  work  of  European- 
izing  the  army.  Under  Abdul  Medjid  the  Seraskier  Riza  Pasha 
finished  the  remodeling  of  the  military  forces  of  the  empire  and 
established  a  regular  system  of  recruiting.  The  army  was  divided 
into  two  classes :  the  active  or  Nizam,  in  which  the  soldier  served 
for  five  years,  and  the  reserve  or  Redif,  in  which  he  remained  for 
seven  years.  The  troops  of  the  Redif  were  allowed  to  return  to 
their  homes,  to  be  summoned  together  at  stated  periods  for  drill 
and  exercise,  with  the  liability  of  being  called  into  active  service  in 
war  time. 

The  system  thus  established  remains  to-day,  and  the  reorgani- 
zation has  been  amply  justified  by  the  excellent  conduct  of  the 
Turkish  army  both  in  the  Crimean  War  and  in  the  Russo-Turkish 
war  of  1877.  Indeed  the  Turkish  infantry  soldier  is  to-day  re- 
garded by  military  authorities  as  among  the  best  in  the  world.  He 
unites  the  qualities  of  sobriety,  strict  obedience,  and  wonderful  en- 
durance with  a  bravery  heightened  by  his  fatalistic  philosophy  and 
religious  enthusiasm ;  and  a  Turkish  regiment  advancing  to  the 
attack  chanting  the  first  article  of  the  Moslem  faith  "  God  is  God  " 
is  a  thing  to  be  respected  and  feared  by  the  best  soldiers  of  the 
day.  The  weakness  of  the  Turkish  military  system  to-day  lies  in 
the  fact  that  practically  the  whole  burden  falls  on  the  Mohammedan 
and  especially  on  the  Ottoman  population  alone,  which  is  in  the 
minority  among  the  races  of  the  empire.  The  Albanians,  Arabs, 
and  Kurds  furnish  troops  of  problematic  value,  but  the  real  strength 
of  the  army  is  drawn  from  the  Turkish  peasantry  of  Rumelia  and 
Asia  Minor,  and  the  burden  is  a  heavy  one.  To  be  sure,  edict  after 
edict  has  opened  the  army  to  Christians,  but  they  have  never  been 
enforced  nor  have  the  Christians  shown  any  patriotic  desire  to  enter 
the  military  service  of  the  Sultan. 


442  TURKEY 

1839-1841 

If  we  except  the  reorganization  of  the  army  already  begun 
under  Mahmiid  II.,  the  reforms  of  Abdul  Medjid,  which  at  the  time 
excited  much  attention  and  applause  in  Europe,  have  in  fact 
amounted  to  very  little,  and  served  more  than  once  rather  to  con- 
ciliate public  opinion  in  the  West  than  to  produce  any  actual 
change  in  conditions  in  the  empire.  Indeed  it  is  pretty  evident  that 
the  able  coterie  of  ministers,  Reshid,  Riza,  Aali,  and  Fuad,  who  for 
years  formed  a  sort  of  ministerial  oligarchy,  had  chiefly  in  view  the 
maintenance  of  their  own  authority  and  the  creation  of  a  favorable 
opinion  in  Europe  rather  than  any  fundamental  changes  in  the 
policy  and  organization  of  Turkey.  But  their  liberal  policy  helped 
to  create  a  party  which  really  desired  reform  and  which,  as  we  shall 
see,  neary  succeeded  in  obtaining  it  later  on.^ 

On  November  3,  1839,  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  progressive  Reshid  Pasha,  solemnly  issued  a  hatti- 
slierif  which  from  the  name  of  the  palace  from  which  it  was 
promulgated  bore  the  name  of  the  Hattisherif  of  Giilhane.  The 
edict  was  not  a  law,  but  rather  a  new  proclamation  of  principles. 
Its  objects  were  declared  to  be:  the  general  protection  of  all  sub- 
jects regardless  of  race  or  religion ;  fairness  in  the  levy  of  taxes,  the 
opening  of  the  courts  and  the  army  to  all  Christians.  These  prom- 
ises were  heartily  in  accord  with  the  hopes  of  liberal  European  opin- 
ion which  looked  for  a  dawn  of  better  days  in  Turkey.  The  hatti- 
sherif was  followed  by  a  series  of  laws  called  the  Tanzimat,  which 
were  intended  to  apply  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  edict.  A 
council  of  state  was  organized,  the  farming  of  taxes  was  declared  to 
be  abolished,  a  penal  code  was  drawn  up,  and  a  universal  law  of 
public  education  was  promulgated.  But  nothing  was  done  to  carry 
out  the  promises  of  admitting  the  Christians  to  the  courts  and  the 
army. 

The  twelve  years  of  peace  which  followed  the  close  of  the 
Egyptian  war,  coupled  with  those  real  reforms  which  were  not 
merely  intended  to  throw  dust  in  the  eyes  of  applauding  Europe,  did 
wonders  in  renewing  the  strength  of  the  empire,  which  had  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  dissolution.  The  ministerial  oligarchy  ruled  su- 
preme over  the  weak  Sultan,  and  the  vast  improvement  in  the 
condition  of  Turkey  between  1840  and  1856  is  a  tribute  to  their 
diplomatic  skill  and  administrative  ability. 

1  The  best  work  on  the  reform  movement  in  Turkey  is   M.   Engelhardt's 
"La  Turqidc  ct  le  Tancimat,"  Paris,  1882. 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  443 

1841-1850 

The  tranquillity  of  the  empire  between  1841  and  1848  was  only 
broken  by  minor  troubles  in  the  Lebanon,  when  the  Maronites,  a 
Christian  sect,  and  the  Druses — a  warlike  people  whose  religion  is  a 
strange  mixture  of  Mohammedan  and  Christian  doctrines — engaged 
in  an  ancient  feud  which  threatened  for  a  time  to  involve  their 
respective  protectors,  France  and  England. 

In  Servia  Prince  Milosh  had  alienated  the  people  by  his  harsh 
rule,  and  his  expulsion  was  followed  by  the  election  of  Alexander, 
son  of  Kara  George,  as  prince.  While  Milosh  and  his  son,  Michael, 
were  inclined  to  favor  Russia,  Alexander  was  accused  of  being  too 
subservient  to  his  suzerain  at  Constantinople. 

The  revival  in  strength  of  Turkey  was  looked  upon  with  no 
favorable  eye  by  Russia,  who,  since  the  Treaty  of  Unkiar  Iskelessi, 
had  regarded  Turkey  somewhat  in  the  light  of  a  protected  state 
whose  disintegration  was  merely  a  question  of  time.  A  pretext  for 
intervention  was  offered  when  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  1848 
sweeping  over  Europe  made  itself  felt  even  in  Turkey.  The  princi- 
palities of  Moldavia  and  W^allachia,  independent  since  the  Treaty  of 
Adrianople,  had  prospered  greatly,  and  the  diffusion  of  culture 
among  the  upper  classes  brought  with  it  a  restlessness  W'hich  threat- 
ened to  develop  into  a  serious  rising  against  the  Porte.  Russia,  as 
the  champion  of  conservatism,  instantly  dispatched  troops  into  the 
provinces,  who,  in  spile  of  the  protests  of  the  Porte,  remained  there 
till  1850,  using  their  positions  as  a  base  of  operations  against  the 
Hungarian  rebels. 

An  incident  which  followed  the  suppression  of  the  Hungarian 
revolt  reflects  much  honor  upon  the  Turks.  After  the  war  a  number 
of  Hungarian  leaders,  among  them  Louis  Kossuth,  fled  to  Turkey 
and  were  hospitably  received  there.  The  Austrian  and  Russian 
governments  put  the  severest  pressure  on  the  Porte  to  obtain  their 
surrender.  But  the  Turks,  supported  by  the  English  ambassador 
Stratford  Canning,  met  their  demands  with  a  dignified  refusal  to 
violate  the  laws  of  hospitality.  The  emi)erors  threatened  war  and 
withdrew  their  rci)rcsentatives.  r)Ut  as  both  England  and  France 
showed  their  intention  of  supporting  Turkey,  the  emperors  finally 
abandoned  their  demands  and  the  exiles  were  allowed  to  retire 
unmolested  to  America. 

The  Russian  attitude  toward  Turkey  continued  to  be  threaten- 
ing, and  it  seemed  as  if  the  great  northern  power  was  only  seeking  a 
decent  pretext  to  strike  a  final  blow  to  the  Ottoman  Empire.      The 


444  TURKEY 

1850-1851 

Emperor  Nicholas  I.,  who  ascended  the  Russian  throne  in  1825,  un- 
hke  his  brother,  was  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  Russian  and 
Orthodox  spirit.  Alexander  had  declared  on  refusing  to  aid  the 
Greeks  that  he  was  the  only  man  in  Russia  who  would  not  risk  his 
all  in  a  war  against  the  Turks.  Nicholas,  conservative  and  auto- 
cratic, with  a  deep  hatred  of  revolutions,  was  yet  led  by  stronger 
national  and  religious  feelings  to  aid  the  Greek  rebels  in  establishing 
their  independence.  Nicholas  was  hardly  a  great  man  nor  even 
a  man  of  great  ideas.  A  typical  autocrat,  he  was  narrow  in  his 
views,  stern  and  despotic  in  his  rule.  Throughout  his  life  he  felt 
most  deeply  his  double  responsibility  as  champion  of  conservatism 
in  the  West,  and  of  Greek  Orthodoxy  in  the  East;  and  there  was 
much  of  the  old  religious  crusading  spirit  in  his  attitude  as  well 
toward  the  liberals  of  Western  Europe  as  toward  the  infidels  of  the 
East.  The  Ottoman  Empire  had  everything  to  fear  from  a  man  of 
such  character. 

In  1850  Nicholas  stood  at  the  height  of  his  power,  and  seemed 
indeed  the  arbiter  of  the  fortunes  of  Europe.  The  petty  German 
princes  regarded  him  as  their  protector  against  the  liberal  tendencies 
of  their  subjects.  The  eccentric  King  of  Prussia,  Frederick  William 
IV.,  was  his  devoted  friend  and  admirer.  In  Austria,  as  preserver 
of  the  house  of  Hapsburg,  he  seemed  to  dominate  entirely  the 
young  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  who  was  soon,  in  Nicholas's  own 
words,  to  astonish  Europe  by  his  ingratitude.  At  home  Nicholas 
ruled  over  one  of  the  greatest  empires  the  world  had  ever  seen, 
and  was  absolute  master  of  seventy  millions  of  obedient  subjects. 
But  commanding  as  his  position  was,  it  was  less  secure  than  it 
seemed.  Nicholas's  empire,  apparently  so  strong,  was  in  reality 
greatly  weakened  by  the  poverty  and  ignorance  of  the  great  mass 
of  the  population  and  by  the  vast  corruption  which  pervaded  the 
whole  official  world.  The  finances  were  none  too  prosperous  and 
the  army  not  so  strong  as  it  appeared  on  paper.  Abroad  Nicholas 
was  hated  by  the  whole  liberal  party  of  Europe,  and  on  the  crest  of 
the  liberal  wave  a  man  was  rising  to  power  in  France  who  was 
destined  to  become  as  great  a  figure  in  Europe  as  Nicholas  himself, 
and  the  great  antagonist  of  Russian  aggression  in  the  East. 

The  revolution  of  1848  in  France  had  brought  Louis  Napoleon, 
the  quondam  adventurer  and  laughing  stock  of  Europe,  into  power 
first  as  princc-presidcnt,  then  after  the  coup  d'etat  of  1851  as  tlie 
Emperor  Xapoleun  III.     None  of  the  European  powers  was  pre- 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  445 

1851 

pared  to  resent  this  usurpation  by  a  nephew  of  the  great  Napoleon, 
though  it  was  avowedly  a  restoration  of  the  old  Napoleonic  ideas 
and  principles.  Indeed,  the  accession  of  Napoleon  III.  was  wel- 
comed by  many  as  an  overthrow  of  the  pernicious  republican  princi- 
ples of  1848.  The  Emperor  Nicholas  alone,  though  sharing  the 
general  relief  at  the  fall  of  the  republic,  was  too  much  of  a  conserva- 
tive and  legitimist  to  be  ready  to  admit  Napoleon  III.  to  an  equal 
footing  with  other  sovereigns,  and  refused  to  address  him  by  the 
title  of  brother,  commonly  employed  as  between  all  sovereigns  of 
the  first  rank.  To  the  ambitious  Napoleon  and  the  sensitive  French 
people  this  slight  was  enough  to  produce  a  strong  feeling  of  resent- 
ment, which  subsequent  events  easily  developed  into  open  hostility. 

An  insignificant  quarrel  among  the  Christians  of  Palestine 
furnished  aHke  the  pretext  for  Russian  aggression  against  Turkey 
and  an  opportunity  for  the  ambitious  French  emperor  to  liberate 
France  from  her  isolated  position  and  enable  him  to  enter  the 
charmed  circle  of  European  sovereigns.  After  the  failure  of  the 
crusades  the  Christians  of  Palestine  had  been  allowed  by  their  con- 
querors to  retain  for  purposes  of  worship  certain  spots  rendered 
sacred  to  all  Christendom  by  events  in  the  life  of  Christ.  To  these 
holy  places,  of  which  the  Church  of  the  Nativity  in  Bethlehem  and 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  in  Jerusalem  were  the  chief,  thou- 
sands of  pilgrims,  Greek,  Latin,  and  Armenian,  came  yearly  to 
worship,  especially  at  the  great  festivals  of  Christmas  and  Easter. 
But  for  many  years  bitter  and  unseemly  disputes  as  to  prior  rights 
of  guardianship  and  worship  in  these  places  had  taken  place  be- 
tween the  Latin  and  Orthodox  sects,  and  more  than  once  the 
Turkish  troops  had  intervened  to  put  an  end  to  disgraceful  scenes 
of  riot  and  bloodshed. 

France,  the  protector  of  Latin  Christianity  in  the  East  since 
the  days  of  Charlemagne,  and  the  leader  in  the  great  crusading 
movement,  had  obtained  as  ally  and  friend  of  Turkey  a  confirmation 
of  their  rights  of  protection  in  the  time  of  Francis  I.,  and  had  main- 
tained the  cause  of  the  Latin  Christians  against  the  claims  of  the 
more  numerous  Greek  Orthodox.  But  the  rise  of  Russia  brought 
forward  a  mighty  champion  for  the  Greek  Orthodox  over  whom  by 
the  Treaty  of  Kutchuk  Kainardji  the  Russians  had  shadowy  rights 
of  protection. 

Hitherto  the  Latin  Church,  backed  by  well-defined  treaties  be- 
tween  France  and  Turkey,  had  retained  control  of  the  holy  places. 


"% 


446  TURKEY 

1851 

But  since  the  beginning  of  the  last  century  the  Greek  Orthodox 
had  been  gaining  ground  at  their  expense.  In  1808  a  fire  destroyed 
part  of  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulcher,  and  the  Greeks  seized  the 
opportunity  to  repair  hastily  the  dome,  and  thus  by  Mohammedan 
law  came  into  possession  of  a  large  part  of  the  church  which  they 
retained  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  Latins  to  dislodge  them.  For 
a  time  the  quarrel  slept,  but  the  appointment  in  1847  of  a  Latin  Pa- 
triarch in  Jerusalem  and  a  subsequent  quarrel  between  the  Latin 
and  Greek  monks  for  the  possession  of  the  Church  of  Bethlehem 
culminating  in  the  disappearance  of  a  silver  star  emblazoned  with 
the  arms  of  France  which  hung  over  the  great  altar,  revived  the 
ancient  feud.  Louis  Napoleon,  then  prince-president,  took  up  the 
matter  in  behalf  of  the  Catholics,  while  the  Russian  Government 
championed  the  Orthodox  cause.  The  whole  dispute  would  have 
remained  insignificant  enough,  if  in  the  course  of  the  negotiations 
Russia  had  not  advanced  new  pretensions  of  the  utmost  importance 
to  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  famous  Treaty  of  Kutchuk  Kainardji  had  contained  cer- 
tain clauses  regarding  the  Orthodox  subjects  of  the  Porte.  By  the 
seventh  and  eighth  articles  the  Sultan  promised  to  protect  the  Chris- 
tian religion  and  its  churches,  and  to  listen  to  representations  made 
in  behalf  of  the  Christians  by  the  Russian  ministers.  By  the  four- 
teenth article  the  Russian  Church  in  Pera,  the  diplomatic  quarter  of 
Constantinople,  was  placed  under  the  full  protection  of  Russia.  The 
Russian  Government  now  interpreted  these  articles  to  mean  that 
Russia  was  entitled  to  exercise  a  general  protection  over  all  the 
Greek  Orthodox  in  the  empire,  just  as  France  protected  the  Roman 
Catholics.  The  immense  significance  of  this  claim  is  very  apparent. 
The  protection  exercised  by  France  over  a  few  thousands  of  Chris- 
tians was  a  matter  of  little  concern  to  Turkey.  But  the  establish- 
ment of  a  protectorate  over  the  Greek  Orthodox  would  mean  the 
transfer  to  Russia  of  authority  over  ten  millions  of  Turkish  subjects 
and  the  practical  reduction  of  Turkey  to  the  state  of  a  Russian 
dependency.  Such  a  concession  by  the  Porte  would  have  meant 
political  suicide. 

During  the  diplomatic  duel  between  France  and  Russia,  Eng- 
land's attitude  had  been  one  of  indifferent  neutrality.  Lideed  so 
little  fear  had  the  British  Government  of  complications  that  it  had 
recalled  from  Constantinople  Stratford  Canning,  n(3w  Lord  Strat- 
ford de  Redcliffc.  whose  immense  influence  at  the  Porle  had  gained 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  447 

1851-1853 

him  among  the  Turks  the  title  of  the  EngHsh  Sultan.  The  Emperor 
Nicholas  realized  perfectly  the  importance  of  securing  English  co- 
operation, or  at  least  acquiescence  in  his  Eastern  policy,  and  the 
time  seemed  most  favorable  for  an  understanding.  The  relations 
between  England  and  Russia  had  on  the  whole  been  most  friendly, 
and  Nicholas  in  his  visit  to  England  in  1844  had  made  a  deep  and 
favorable  impression  upon  the  young  queen.  The  liberal  English 
ministry,  too,  headed  by  Lord  Aberdeen,  an  old  acquaintance  of  the 
emperor's,  was  inclined  to  be  on  the  best  of  terms  with  Russia,  and 
to  look  with  suspicion  on  the  recent  revival  of  the  Napoleonic  tra- 
dition across  the  Channel.  Nicholas  had  as  far  back  as  1840  made 
proposals  to  the  English  cabinet  looking  toward  a  more  complete 
understanding  with  regard  to  Turkey.  Now,  twelve  years  later, 
he  personally  took  up  the  negotiations,  and  in  the  famous  interviews 
with  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour,  the  English  ambassador,  discussed 
with  the  most  apparent  frankness  the  impending  crisis  in  the  East.^ 
^Meeting  Sir  Hamilton  one  night  in  January,  1853,  at  an  informal 
gathering,  the  emperor  drew  him  aside  and  began  to  speak  of  the 
pleasure  which  the  close  amity  between  England  and  Russia  gave 
him.  "  If  we  are  agreed,"  he  said,  "  I  care  nothing  about  the  rest' 
of  Europe.  What  the  others  think  or  do  is  of  little  importance.  As 
for  Turkey,  that  is  another  question ;  she  is  in  a  critical  state  and 
may  give  us  a  good  deal  of  trouble."  With  these  words  the  em- 
peror shook  hands  with  Seymour  and  turned  to  leave.  But  the 
ambassador,  fearing  that  so  favorable  an  opportunity  for  frank 
speaking  would  not  return,  begged  the  emperor  to  add  a  few  words 
to  allay  the  anxiety  felt  in  England  with  regard  to  Turkey.  Nich- 
olas was  silent  a  moment  and  then  replied  that  the  affairs  of  Turkey 
were  in  a  very  precarious  condition,  and  that  the  empire  seemed 
about  to  fall  to  pieces.  Such  a  disaster  would  be  a  great  misfortune, 
and  it  was  important  that  England  and  Russia  should  come  to  some 
understanding  regarding  it.  "  We  have  a  sick  man  on  our  hands — 
a  very  sick  man.  It  will  be,  I  tell  you  frankly,  a  great  misfortune 
if  one  of  these  davs  he  should  slip  away  from  us,  especially  before 
all  tlie  necessary  arrangements  had  been  made." 

In   subsecjucnt   interviews   with    Sir   Hamilton,    Nicholas  pro- 
ceeded to  set  forth  liis  views  on  the  Eastern  Question  in  more  detail. 

2  A  full  accnuiit  fif  tlu'sc  strrmtTc  conversations  will  be  foinid  in  the  dispatches 
of  Seynionr  given  in  the  Eastern  papers,  Part  V.,  published  by  tlie  EngHsh 
Government. 


448  TURKEY 

1853 

He  disclaimed  any  intentions  of  aggrandizement  at  the  expense  of 
Turkey,  but  declared  that  his  position  as  protector  of  the  Orthodox 
Christians  in  the  East  imposed  on  him  certain  obhgations  and  duties 
which  must  be  fulfilled.  At  another  time  Nicholas  spoke  more 
specifically  of  the  results  of  the  probable  disintegration  of  Turkey. 
He  declared  that  he  would  never  permit  any  other  power  to  occupy 
Constantinople,  nor  did  he  wish  to  take  it  himself,  though  circum- 
stances might  make  it  necessary  to  do  so.  The  Danubian  principali- 
ties, Servia  and  Bulgaria,  should  become  autonomous  states  under 
Russian  protection,  and  England  might  take  for  her  share  Egypt 
and  Crete.  But  he  would  never  permit  a  restoration  of  the  Greek 
Empire,  nor  would  he  endure  seeing  Turkey  split  up  into  petty 
republics,  asylums  for  the  revolutionar}^  spirits  of  Europe. 

The  views  of  Nicholas,  thus  frankly  expressed,  produced  a 
feeling  of  intense  surprise  bordering  on  consternation  among  the 
English  statesmen.  The  reiterated  expression  of  the  emperor  about 
the  sick  man  who  was  about  to  die  led  Sir  Hamilton  Seymour  to 
remark  that  a  sovereign  who  insisted  with  such  pertinacity  on  the 
impending  fall  of  a  neighbor  must  have  settled  in  his  own  mind 
that  the  hour  if  not  of  its  dissolution  at  all  events  for  its  dissolution 
must  be  at  hand.  A  similar  suspicion  had  led  the  veteran  Austrian 
statesman,  Prince  ]\Ietternich,  to  remark  dryly  when  Nicholas  spoke 
of  the  imminent  dissolution  of  Turkey,  "The  sick  man?  Are  your 
Majesty's  remarks  addressed  to  his  doctor  or  his  heir  ?'' 

The  proposals  of  Nicholas  were  met  by  a  prompt  disclaimer  of 
the  English  Government  of  any  desire  to  participate  in  the  spoils 
of  Turkey,  and  an  expression  of  the  belief  that  the  "  sick  man  "  was 
not  dying,  but  only  required  friendly  support  and  forbearance  in 
order  not  only  to  survive,  but  to  effect  a  complete  recovery. 
Aroused  now  from  its  indifi^erence,  the  English  Government  sought 
to  establish  closer  relations  with  France,  and  hastened  to  send  Lord 
Stratford  de  Redcliffe  back  to  Constantinople. 

Though  greatly  disappointed  at  the  attitude  of  England,  the 
Russian  emperor  did  not  hesitate  for  an  instant  in  his  aggressive 
policy.  A  new  pretext  for  exerting  pressure  on  the  Porte  was 
offered  by  the  troubles  in  ]\Iontenegro.  a  mountainous  little  state 
inhabited  by  a  warlike  people.  Montenegro  had  never  been  actually 
conquered  by  the  Turks,  and  had  for  centuries  waged  a  continual 
border  warfare  against  Turks  and  the  neighboring  .Mbanians.  The 
Turks  had  long  been  content  to  regard  the  Prince-Bishop  or  Vladika 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  449 

1853 

of  Montenegro  as  a  mere  prelate  of  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  thus 
console  themselves  for  their  lack  of  real  control  over  the  country. 
But  the  death  of  the  last  Prince-Bishop  Peter  II.  in  185 1  and  the 
accession  of  a  secular  Prince  Danilo  caused  the  Ottoman  govern- 
ment to  fear  a  loss  of  even  nominal  control  over  the  principality.  A 
raid  of  Montenegrins  into  Albania  offered  a  pretext  for  interven- 
tion, and  in  December,  1852,  the  sirdar  Omar  Pasha  with  60,000 
men  advanced  against  the  little  state.  The  Montenegrins  were  on 
the  point  of  being  overwhelmed  when  they  were  saved  by  Austrian 
intervention.  The  Austrian  Government  had  noted  with  anxiety 
the  presence  near  its  frontier  of  a  large  Turkish  army  in  whose 
ranks  were  many  Plungarian  refugees.  Accordingly  an  ambas- 
sador. Count  Leiningen,  was  dispatched  to  Constantinople,  with  the 
result  that  the  Porte  promptly  consented  to  a  withdrawal  of  the 
Turkish  army  from  Montenegro. 

Russia  had  been  interested  in  Montenegro  since  the  days  of 
Peter  the  Great,  and  the  prompt  settlement  of  the  cjuestion  was  a 
great  disappointment  to  her.  Nevertheless  the  mission  of  Count 
Leiningen  afforded  an  agreeable  precedent,  and  on  February  28, 
1853,  Prince  Menshikov  arrived  in  Constantinople  as  the  special 
envoy  of  Russia  for  a  settlement  of  pending  difficulties  with  Turkey. 

From  the  first  Prince  Menshikov  showed  himself  to  be  the  mes- 
senger of  an  angry  overlord  and  the  bearer  of  no  peaceful  message. 
He  violated  the  cherished  etiquette  of  the  Porte  and  openly 
affronted  the  Grand  Vizier,  ]\rohammed  Pasha.  Pie  refused  abso- 
lutely to  deal  with  the  foreign  minister,  Fuad  Pasha,  who  was  an 
able  opponent  of  Russian  policy,  and  that  official,  to  relieve  the  ten- 
sion, resigned  his  post.  The  instructions  of  Menshikov  were  two- 
fold. He  was  to  obtain  a  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  holy 
places  favorable  to  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  a  solemn  acknowl- 
edgment by  the  Porte  of  the  Russian  protectorate  over  the  Greek 
Christians  in  the  empire. 

In  their  distress  at  this  juncture  tlie  Turks  turned  to  Stratford 
de  Redcliffe  for  advice.  His  first  move  on  returning  to  Constanti- 
nople had  been  to  obtain  the  support  of  his  French  colleague,  and  the 
assent  of  France  to  a  compromise  in  the  holy  places.  He  now  ad- 
vised the  Porte  to  obtain  from  Menshikov  the  separation  of  the 
Russian  demands,  and  to  make  a  settlement  of  the  question  of  the 
holy  places,  which  would  remove  the  only  real  grievance  of  Russia. 
Menshikov,  who  was  no  diplomat,   fell  into  the  trap,  and  a  com- 


450  TURKEY 

1853 

promise  over  the  holy  places  was  arranged  favorable  to  Russia. 
Accordingly  it  was  solemnly  agreed  that  the  silver  star  should  re- 
main over  the  altar  of  the  Church  of  Bethlehem,  that  a  Greek  monk 
should  be  doorkeeper,  but  have  no  authority  to  exclude  the  Latins 
and  Armenians,  that  the  Greeks  should  worship  first  in  the  Church 
of  the  Holy  Sepulcher  (for,  as  Lord  Stratford  gravely  explained, 
they  were  accustomed  to  rise  earlier  in  the  morning  than  the 
Latins),  and  that  the  Sultan  should  himself  repair  the  dome  of  the 
Holy  Sepulcher  and  listen  to  any  remonstrances  of  the  Greek  Pa- 
triarch. This  controversy  being  settled,  there  remained  the  question 
of  the  Russian  protectorate  over  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  to  this 
the  Turks  steadily  refused  to  assent.  In  vain  did  Prince  Menshi- 
kov  deliver  ultimatums  and  threaten  the  severest  displeasure  of  his 
august  master.  The  Turks  remained  firm,  and  Menshikov  finally 
broke  off  diplomatic  relations  and  left  Constantinople. 

The  Emperor  Nicholas  was  highly  exasperated  with  this  un- 
expected failure,  and  was  inclined  to  take  violent  measures  to 
reduce  the  Turks  to  submission.  But  under  the  influence  of  his 
chancellor,  the  able  Count  Nesselrode,  he  finally  decided  to  com- 
promise by  an  occupation  of  the  Danubian  principalities  as  a  pledge 
for  the  enforcement  of  his  demands.  In  July,  1853,  25,000  Rus- 
sian troops  crossed  the  Pruth  and  took  possession  of  the  provinces. 
This  act  of  aggression  excited  the  Turks  to  the  highest  degree,  and 
the  fanatical  Mohammedan  population  of  the  capital  clamored  for 
war.  But  the  foreign  ministers  at  Constantinople  held  the  Porte 
back  from  precipitate  action,  and  the  Sultan  merely  issued  a  protest 
against  the  hostile  attitude  of  Russia. 

All  the  Western  powers  were  anxious  to  prevent  hostilities  if 
possible,  and  none  more  so  than  England,  who,  united  with  France 
in  a  common  opposition  to  Russia,  stood  pledged  to  the  support  of 
Turkey.  During  the  summer  the  diplomats  of  Europe  were  busy 
concocting  schemes  for  the  settlement  of  the  threatening  situation. 
Of  eleven  difi^erent  plans  of  conciliation  the  chief  came  from 
Vienna,  where  the  representatives  of  Austria,  France,  and  England 
met  and  drew  up  the  so-called  "  Vienna  Note,"  which  proposed  that 
the  Porte  sliould  solemnly  recognize  the  stipulations  of  the  Treaties 
of  Kainardji  and  Adrianople,  and  guarantee  the  Orthodox  Church 
in  all  its  rights.  The  Turkish  Government  refused  to  accept  this 
plan ;  and  when  Count  Nesselrode  interpreted  the  note  to  mean  a 
practical  assent  to  the  Russian    protectorate,    both    England    and 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  451 

1853-1854 

France  withdrew  their  adhesion.  It  was  now  no  longer  possible  to 
prevent  the  outbreak  of  war.  In  answer  to  the  Russian  occupation 
of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia  an  Anglo-French  fleet  cast  anchor 
outside  the  Dardanelles,  and  on  October  17,  Omar  Pasha,  the 
Turkish  commander  in  Bulgaria,  opened  hostilities.  The  declara- 
tion of  war  by  the  Porte  was  answered  by  Nicholas  in  a  manifesto 
which  called  on  the  people  for  a  holy  war  against  the  oppressors  of 
their  Orthodox  brethren  in  Turkey.  This  proclamation  made  a 
bad  impression  in  Europe,  and  the  English  and  French  fleets  passed 
the  Dardanelles  and  rode  at  anchor  before  Constantinople. 

Along  the  Danube  the  Turks  showed  unwonted  vigor,  and, 
crossing  the  river,  defeated  the  Russians  in  several  engagements. 
But  the  most  decisive  blow  of  the  campaign  was  struck  on  the 
sea.  On  November  30  a  Turkish  squadron  of  twelve  vessels 
which  lay  in  the  harbor  of  Sinope  was  attacked  by  the  Rus- 
sian Admiral  Nakkimov  and  totally  destroyed  with  a  loss  of 
4000  men.  The  blow,  severe  as  it  was  in  crippling  the  naval  re- 
sources of  Turkey,  turned  out  to  be  to  her  utmost  advantage.  Al- 
though this  exploit  of  the  Russians  was  a  perfectly  legitimate  act 
of  war,  still  the  massacre  of  Sinope  raised  the  feeling  against  Russia 
in  England  and  France  to  the  highest  degree.  That  such  a  de- 
struction of  the  Turkish  fleet  should  take  place  so  near  to  their 
united  squadrons  which  had  been  sent  for  the  protection  of  Turkey 
was  a  bitter  affront  to  the  powers,  especially  as  they  were  still  nego- 
tiating for  peace. 

Technically,  however,  the  Russian  fleet  was  within  its  rights, 
and  England  and  France  hastened  to  escape  from  their  false  posi- 
tion. The  allied  fleets  entered  the  Black  Sea  (January  3,  1854) 
and  the  Russian  fleet  was  warned  to  withdraw  to  Sebastopol.  To 
this  the  Russian  Government,  after  vainly  demanding  the  right  of 
free  transport  on  the  Black  Sea.  responded  by  recalling  its  min- 
isters from  Paris  and  London.  The  war  spirit  was  running  high  in 
France  and  England,  and  events  moved  rapidly  to  the  outbreak  of 
hostilities.  On  March  12.  1854,  France  and  England  concluded 
a  defensive  alliance  with  Turkey.  A  few  days  later  an  ulti- 
matum was  sent  to  St.  Peters1)nrg  demanding  the  evacuation  of  the 
principalities,  and  when  Count  Xesselrode  refused  any  answer,  a 
formal  declaration  of  war  was  issued  ]^Iarcli  2"],  1854.  The 
attitude  of  the  (3erm;in  powers  and  especially  of  Austria  was 
awaited    with    great    anxiety.     To    the    bitter    disappointment    of 


452  TURKEY 

1854 

Nicholas,  who  had  expected  more  gratitude  from  the  government 
he  had  saved  in  1848,  Austria  declared  her  neutrality,  while  in 
April  Austria  and  Prussia  signed  a  secret  agreement  to  oppose  any 
permanent  occupation  of  the  Danubian  principalities  by  Russia. 
Both  France  and  England  were  ill  prepared  for  the  struggle. 
Though  the  French  army  had  been  kept  in  a  state  of  high  ef- 
ficiency, the  navy  was  too  small  and  transports  were  lacking.  Eng- 
land, on  the  contrary,  had  a  large  and  efficient  navy,  but  her  army 
had  decayed  since  181 5,  and  the  War  Office  soon  showed  itself  un- 
prepared for  the  management  of  a  great  war.  Both  powers  entered 
into  the  struggle  without  any  very  definite  place  of  operations.  The 
Russian  advance  on  the  Danube  seemed,  however,  to  indicate  a  cam- 
paign in  the  Balkans  for  the  defense  of  Constantinople,  and  so  both 
countries  hastened  to  dispatch  troops  to  the  seat  of  the  war. 

During  the  months  of  March  and  April  the  English  Channel 
ports  and  the  French  ports  of  Toulon  and  Marseilles  w^ere  filled 
with  troops  embarking  for  the  East.  The  commander  selected  for 
the  English  forces  was  Lord  Raglan,  a  dignified  and  amiable  man 
of  sixty-seven  years,  who  had  last  seen  service  at  Waterloo.  The 
close  companion  and  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton, Lord  Raglan  had  many  of  the  characteristics,  if  he  lacked  the 
genius,  of  the  great  duke.  His  colleague,  the  French  Marshal  St. 
Arnaud,  was  in  every  way  his  opposite.  After  a  checkered  career 
in  which  he  had  fought  his  way  up  through  the  ranks,  St.  Arnaud 
had  become  the  confidante  of  Louis  Napoleon  at  the  time  of  the 
coup  d'etat,  and  was  now  minister  of  war.  He  was  an  experienced 
soldier  with  a  great  capacity  for  work,  though  on  the  surface  some- 
what vain  and  reckless.  Though  a  constant  sufferer  from  an  in- 
curable malady  his  spirit  was  unconquerable.  In  spite  of  their 
differences  of  character,  the  two  commanders  had  a  strong  respect 
for  each  other,  and  in  general  were  on  the  best  of  terms.  In  April 
Lord  Raglan  and  the  Duke  of  Cambridge  stopped  in  Paris  on  their 
way  to  the  East,  and  in  conference  with  the  Emperor  Napoleon 
made  final  arrangements  for  the  campaign. 

But  before  the  allied  troops  concentrated  at  Varna  on  the 
Black  Sea  were  ready  to  take  the  field,  the  campaign  on  the  Danube 
had  already  been  decided.  At  the  outset  the  Russians  were  disap- 
pointed in  their  hopes  of  risings  among  the  Christians  of  Servia  and 
Bulgaria.  In  March  three  Russian  corps  crossed  the  Danube  and 
stormed  the  fortress  of  Hirsova  in  the  Dobrudsha.      Their  next 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  453 

1854 

objective  was  Silistria,  the  greatest  fortress  on  the  Danube,  whose 
capture  would  lay  Bulgaria  open  to  them.  On  April  28  40,000 
Russians  under  Marshal  Paskievitch,  the  hero  of  the  war  of 
1828,  opened  the  siege  of  Silistria,  which  was  ably  defended  by 
Mussa  Pasha,  assisted  by  the  German  Colonel  Grach  and  two 
young  English  subalterns,  Butler  and  Nasmyth.  For  two  months 
the  Russians  pressed  the  siege  with  vigor,  though  every  assault  was 
repulsed  and  Omar  Pasha  was  able  to  reinforce  the  garrison.  The 
siege  had  already  cost  the  Russians  12,000  men,  when  Prince  Gor- 
chakov  determined  on  one  final  assault.  The  Russian  troops  on 
June  21  had  already  taken  their  places  for  the  attack,  when  sud- 
denly the  orders  were  countermanded,  and  the  Russians  withdrew 
from  the  fortress  and  retreated  across  the  Danube. 

The  sudden  raising  of  the  siege  was  at  first  inexplicable  to  the 
Turks  and  their  allies.  In  fact,  Prince  Gorchakov  had  received 
secret  dispatches  from  St.  Petersburg  which  made  an  immediate 
retreat  imperative.  The  Austrian  Government  had  viewed  with 
alarm  the  Russian  occupation  of  Rumania  and  the  progress  of  Rus- 
sian arms  on  the  Danube.  The  menace  to  Austria  of  a  permanent 
Russian  settlement  on  the  Danube  seemed  more  than  sufficient  to 
outweigh  the  debt  of  gratitude  which  the  Austrian  Government 
owed  to  the  Emperor  Nicholas.  We  have  seen  that  Austria  and 
Prussia  had  already  come  to  a  secret  agreement  regarding  the 
Danubian  principalities.  Accordingly  on  June  3  the  Austrian  minis- 
ter, Count  Buol,  sent  to  St.  Petersburg  demanding  that  the  Rus- 
sian troops  should  immediately  withdraw  from  the  Danube.  In 
reply  Count  Nesselrode  disclaimed  any  intention  of  a  permanent 
occupation  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  but  declared  that  the  tem- 
porary occupation  was  necessary  for  the  conduct  of  the  war.  The 
Prussian  Government  declared  itself  satisfied  with  this  disclaimer, 
but  Austria  persisted  in  her  demands,  and  50,000  Austrian  troops 
were  massed  on  the  Transylvanian  frontier.  On  June  14  a 
treaty  was  concluded  between  Austria  and  Turkey  providing  for 
a  joint  occupation  of  the  principalities,  and  the  Austrian  Govern- 
ment opened  negotiations  with  France  and  England  looking  toward 
the  total  removal  of  Russian  influence  in  the  Balkan  peninsula. 

The  attitude  of  Austria  was  a  heavy  blow  to  the  Emperor 
Nicholas,  whose  pride  had  already  been  shaken  by  the  defeats  his 
troo]xs  had  suffered  before  Silistria  at  the  hands  of  the  despised 
Turks.       But  he  saw  himself  obliired   to  vield  if  he  would  avoid 


454  TURKEY 

1854 

adding  one  more  power  to  the  great  coalition  of  his  enemies.  The 
Russian  troops  gradually  withdrew  from  the  principalities,  and  on 
August  22  Omar  Pasha  entered  Bucharest  in  triumph,  while  an 
Austrian  army  corps  crossed  the  Transylvanian  border  and  occu- 
pied Moldavia.  The  campaign  on  the  Danube  was  over  without  the 
allied  troops  striking  a  blow,  and  the  first  act  of  the  war  drama 
was  finished. 

The  evacuation  of  the  Danubian  provinces  had  removed  the 
immediate  cause  of  the  war,  and  the  Turks  might  well  feel  satisfied 
with  what  had  been  accomplished.  But  both  England  and  France 
were  now  determined  to  displace  Russia  from  the  overruling  posi- 
tion she  had  so  long  held  in  Europe,  and  to  cripple  if  possible  her 
threatening  predominance  in  the  East.  The  war  which  had  begun 
in  defense  of  Turkey  had  become  one  for  the  restoration  of  the 
proper  balance  of  power  in  Europe. 

In  pursuance  of  this  policy  of  crippling  Russia  in  the  East,  the 
English  Government  now  proposed  that  the  allies  should  invade  the 
Crimea  and  destroy  the  great  naval  arsenal  of  Sebastopol,  whose  ex- 
istence was  a  constant  menace  to  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  plan 
was  instantly  accepted  by  the  Emperor  Napoleon,  eager  to  win 
glory  for  the  French  arms ;  indeed,  the  very  ignorance  of  both  the 
French  and  English  Governments  as  to  the  Crimea  and  Sebastopol 
allowed  no  grounds  for  objection.  The  allied  commanders,  Lord 
Ragiaii  and  Marshal  St.  Arnaud,  realized  far  better  the  true  diffi- 
culties of  the  projett,  but  prepared  to  obey  the  orders  of  their 
governments  much  against  their  own  judgment.  It  was  indeed  high 
time  that  some  move  should  be  made.  The  site  of  Varna,  where  the 
allies  were  encamped,  was  a  most  unhealthful  one,  and  fever  and 
dysentery  were  raging,  while  the  scourge  of  cholera  had  followed 
the  French  from  Marseilles. 

Once  the  campaign  was  decided  on,  the  embarkment  of  the 
troops  was  pushed  forward  in  all  haste,  and  on  September  7,  1854, 
the  vast  fleet  of  transports  carrying  over  60,000  men  set  sail,  es- 
corted by  a  squadron  of  sixty  men  of  war.^  The  difficulties  of 
transport  forced  the  French  to  leave  their  cavalry  behind,  and  the 
only  mounted  force  with  the  expedition  was  the  English  Light 
Brigade,      llie  peninsula  of  the  Crimea,  as  yet  an  unknown  land  to 

•^  The  chief  F.nglisli  account  of  the  war  is  Kinglake's  "  Invasion  of  the 
Crimea,"  an  exliaustive  work.  An  interesting  short  account  is  the  "  War  in  the 
Crimea,"  by  Sir  Edward  Ilamley,  a  veteran  of  the  campaign. 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  455 

1854 

the  allied  armies,  has  an  area  about  equal  to  that  of  the  State  of 
Vermont,  while  its  population  in  1850  was  only  200,000.  The  land 
connection  with  Russia  is  formed  by  the  narrow  isthmus  of  Perekop, 
but  the  chief  means  of  communication  with  the  north  was  through 
the  shallow  sea  of  Azov.  All  the  northern  part  of  the  Crimea  is  a 
flat  and  arid  steppe,  over  which  are  scattered  little  villages  of 
Tartar  herdsmen.  In  the  central  and  southern  portions  the  land  is 
mountainous,  and  the  southern  shore,  protected  from  the  bleak  north 
winds,  has  a  mild  and  delightful  climate,  which  makes  it  to-day  a 
favorite  winter  resort  for  the  Russians.  The  southwestern  coast 
is  indented  by  the  deep  and  sheltered  harbor  of  Sebastopol,  the 
great  Russian  naval  port  for  the  Black  Sea.  Inland  among  the 
hills  lie  the  ancient  Tartar  capital  of  Bagtcheserai,  the  "  Garden 
Pavilion,"  and  the  modern  capital  of  Simpheropol. 

The  allied  fleets  arrived  without  hindrance  off  the  rendezvous 
of  Eupatoria,  and  the  disembarkment  of  the  troops  began  at  the  Bay 
of  Kalamita,  twenty-five  miles  north  of  Sebastopol.  Under  the 
protection  of  the  guns  of  the  fleet,  the  landing  was  completed  with- 
out molestation,  and  on  the  19th  the  advance  toward  Sebastopol 
began.  On  the  next  day  the  little  River  Alma  was  reached,  and  the 
Russian  army  36,000  strong,  under  Prince  ]\Ienshikov,  was  seen 
drawn  up  on  the  hills  beyond  the  river.  The  battle  of  the  Alma 
was  fought  with  little  generalship  on  either  side.  The  English  bore 
the  brunt  of  the  attack,  and  after  a  desperate  struggle  carried  the 
Russian  lines  in  their  front.  The  arrival  of  the  French  on  the 
Russian  left  flank  completed  the  victory,  and  Prince  iMenshikov  re- 
treated toward  Sebastopol,  having  lost  5000  men.  The  news  of 
this  victory  was  received  witli  great  rejoicing  in  France  and 
England,  where  it  was  thought  tliat  Sebastopol  would  surely 
be  taken  in  a  few  days  and  the  armies  would  be  home  again  by 
Christmas. 

After  the  battle  of  the  Alma  Prince  ]\Ienshikov  withdrew  to 
Sebastopol  to  complete  the  preparations  for  defense.  Then  leaving 
in  the  town  a  garrison  of  35,000  men,  including  the  sailors  from 
the  fleet,  he  withdrew  int(3  the  interior  with  the  rest  of  his  forces 
in  order  to  keep  open  communications  with  Russia  and  to  hinder  the 
allies  by  the  constant  menace  of  a  field  army.  ^Meantime  the  allies 
h.'ul  C')ni])leted  their  ])lans  for  the  attack  on  Sebastopol.  The  town 
of  Sebastopol  lies  on  the  south  side  of  the  great  roadstead  which 
indents  the  coast  from  east  to  west  with  an  average  width  of  one- 


456 


TURKEY 


1854 

half  a  mile.  South  of  the  town  between  the  harbor  of  Sebastopol 
and  the  southern  shore  of  the  Crimea  Hes  a  plateau  rising-  abruptly 
from  the  sea,  which  washes  it  on  the  west  and  south,  known  as  the 
Upland.  It  was  decided  by  the  allies  not  to  attack  the  city  from  the 
north  side  of  the  harbor,  but  to  transfer  the  army  by  a  flank  march 
to  the  Upland  and  to  establish  new  bases  on  the  south  coast  of  the 
Crimea.  A  few  days  after  the  conference  in  which  this  place  was 
decided  on  Marshal  St.  Arnaud  died.  His  loss  was  a  serious  blow 
to  the  allies. 

By  the  end  of  the  first  week  in  October  the  allies  were  firmly 
established  to  the  south  of  Sebastopol,  the  English  with  their  base  at 


THE  PEN/N5ULA 
OF  THE    

CR I M  E A 


Balaklava,  the  French  on  tlie  Upland  to  the  west  with  their  base  at 
Kamiesh.  The  result  of  this  change  of  base  was  that  the  allies  were 
never  wholly  able  to  invest  the  town.  The  north  side  of  the  harbor 
remained  open  throughout  the  siege,  and  the  towm  was  in  constant 
communication  with  the  Russian  field  army.  Every  night  the 
wounded  were  carried  out  of  Sebastopol  across  the  harbor  and 
fresh  troops  were  poured  in. 

It  was  soon  apparent  to  the  allies  that  the  reduction  of  Sebasto- 
pol was  to  be  no  easy  task.  The  defenses  of  the  city  were  very 
strong,  consisting  of  continuous  lines  of  stone    and  earth  works, 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  457 

1854-1855 

strengthened  at  intervals  by  great  bastions  or  redoubts,  the  names 
of  some  of  which,  hke  the  Redan  and  the  Malakov,  have  gained  a 
grim  significance  in  history.  But  the  chief  strength  of  the  besieged 
lay  in  their  great  chief  of  engineers,  Colonel  Todleben,  whose  skill 
and  inspiration  did  more  than  anything  else  to  protract  the  siege  and 
make  it  one  of  the  most  famous  in  the  pages  of  history. 

The  allies  rapidly  pushed  forward  the  task  of  erecting  siege 
works,  and  on  October  17  the  French  and  English  batteries, 
assisted  by  the  warships  in  the  ofling,  opened  a  tremendous  fire 
on  the  Russian  works.  But  though  the  English  fire  reduced  the 
Russian  works  to  ruins,  the  explosion  of  their  chief  magazine  si- 
lenced the  French  batteries  and  made  it  necessary  for  the  allies  to 
abandon  the  idea  of  a  general  assault.  A  new  element  now  entered 
into  the  siege.  The  Russian  field  army,  heavily  reinforced,  at- 
tacked the  allies  in  turn  and  reduced  them  to  the  defensive. 

On  October  25  a  Russian  reconaissance  in  force  drove  in  the 
Turkish  outposts  near  Balaklava  after  a  sharp  struggle,  and  brought 
on  a  battle  in  itself  insignificant,  but  distinguished  for  all  time  by  the 
famous  charge  of  the  English  Light  Brigade,  and  the  less-known 
but  equally  brilliant  charge  of  the  Fleavy  Brigade  against  the  Rus- 
sian cavalry.  The  main  Russian  attack  was  made  on  November  5 
against  the  thinly  guarded  English  lines  at  Inkerman.  Here,  aided 
by  a  heavy  fog  which  concealed  their  small  numbers,  3000  English 
for  two  hours  held  15,000  Russians  at  bay  until  the  arrival  of  heavy 
English  and  French  reinforcements  forced  the  Russians  to  retreat. 
The  battle  of  Inkerman,  the  bloodiest  of  the  whole  war,  cost  the 
Russians  12,000,  the  allies  4000  men.  After  so  murderous  a  con- 
flict the  allies  were  too  weak  to  risk  a  general  assault  on  Sebastopcjl, 
and  so  prepared  to  settle  down  into  winter  quarters.  The  winter 
of  1 854-1855  proved  a  peculiarly  severe  one  in  the  Crimea.  It  was 
the  rainy  season,  and  the  discomfort  of  the  soldiers,  w-ho  had  no 
better  shelter  than  their  tents,  was  intense.  The  roads  became 
almost  impassable,  and  the  dearth  of  pack  animals,  which  perished 
by  thousands  for  lack  of  fodder,  made  it  very  difficult  to  bring  up 
supplies  for  the  troops,  and  vast  stores  lay  idle  at  Balaklava,  while 
the  troo])s  at  the  front  lacked  the  commonest  necessities. 

The  sufferings  of  the  troops,  destitute  of  proper  food  and 
clothing,  with  no  fuel  to  warm  themselves  and  no  proper  shelters, 
obliged  to  do  douljle  service  in  the  wet  trenches,  brought  thousands 
to  the  hospitals.      In  January  the  sick  in  the  camp  never  numbered 


458  TURKEY 

1855 

less  than  two  thousand,  and  thousands  besides  were  sent  across  the 
sea  to  the  great  hospitals  of  Scutari,  which  were  under  the  charge  of 
Miss  Florence  Nightingale.  The  French  suffered  less  than  the 
English,  for  their  base  of  supplies  was  close  at  hand,  but  poor 
tents  and  insufficient  rations  combined  with  disease  to  thin  their 
ranks. 

By  March  matters  had  decidedly  improved.  The  troops  were 
at  last  comfortably  sheltered  in  wooden  huts,  while  a  short  railroad 
newly  built  brought  supplies  up  to  the  camp.  But  the  winter  had 
cost  the  allies  20,000  men. 

The  sufferings  of  the  troops  had  aroused  intense  indignation 
in  England,  which  forced  the  resignation  of  the  ministry  of  Lord 
Aberdeen.  Numerous  investigating  committees  were  appointed, 
which  found  plenty  of  evidence  of  gross  mismanagement.  But  the 
reports  showed  that  the  blame  could  not  be  placed  on  any  particular 
shoulders,  and  that  the  fault  lay  in  the  general  inefficiency  of  the 
War  Office.  One  result  of  the  winter's  hardships  was  to  reduce  the 
English  troops  in  proportion  to  their  French  allies,  who  had  been 
heavily  reinforced  during  the  winter.  During  the  rest  of  the  siege 
the  French  occupied  the  leading  position,  which  the  English  had 
held  down  to  the  battle  of  Inkerman, 

The  winter  had  been  marked  by  few  important  operations. 
The  Russians  attacked  Eupatoria,  which  was  held  by  23,000  Turks 
under  Omar  Pasha,  but  were  easily  repulsed.  Meantime,  the  dis- 
asters of  the  war  had  told  heavily  upon  the  Emperor  Nicholas. 
After  the  battle  of  the  Alma  he  had  locked  himself  into  his  room 
and  had  refused  for  days  to  see  anyone.  The  approach  of  winter 
and  the  hardships  of  the  allies  had  revived  his  spirits,  and  he  re- 
marked that  he  had  two  generals  who  would  not  fail  him,  "  Janu- 
ary and  February."  But  the  defeat  of  his  troops  at  Eupatoria  by 
the  despised  Turks  was  the  last  straw.  A  few  days  later  his  power- 
ful physique  gave  way,  and  on  ]\Iarch  2  he  died.  The  anxieties 
and  crushing  disappointments  of  the  war  undoubtedly  hastened 
his  end.  His  successor,  Alexander  II.,  maintained  at  first  the  same 
warlike  attitude  as  his  father,  though  he  finally  consented  to  join 
in  a  peace  conference  which  was  held  at  Vienna  in  ]\Iarch. 

A  new  element  was  introduced  into  the  war  by  the  alliance 
of  Sardinia  with  France  and  England,  and  the  sending  of  15,000 
Italian  troops  under  General  La  Marmora  to  the  Crimea.  Sar- 
dinia had  UiA  the  slightest  grievance  against  Russia,  but  her  able 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  459 

1855 

minister,  Cavoiir,  saw  in  the  alliance  a  favorable  opportunity  to 
bring  his  country  before  the  eyes  of  Europe,  and  win  for  it  the 
friendship  of  France  and  England. 

With  the  return  of  spring  operations  were  vigorously  resumed. 
In  accordance  with  a  plan  of  cutting  the  Russian  communications 
proposed  by  Napoleon,  the  allies  sent  a  highly  successful  expedition 
into  the  Sea  of  Azov,  which  captured  the  fortress  of  Kertch  and 
destroyed  immense  stores  accumulated  by  the  Russians  at  Taganrog 
and  other  places.  The  siege  of  Sebastopol  was  pursued  with  new 
vigor.  On  June  7  the  French  stormed  the  Mamelon  redoubt, 
which  had  been  of  great  annoyance  to  them.  On  the  i8th 
under  cover  of  a  tremendous  bombardment  a  general  assault  was 
made  on  the  Malakov  and  the  Redan,  but  was  repulsed  with  terri- 
ble slaughter.  A  few  days  later  the  Russians  suffered  an  irreparable 
loss  when  Todleben  was  wounded  and  forced  to  withdraw  from  any 
further  share  in  the  siege.  On  June  28  Lord  Raglan  died  of  the 
cholera.  His  sterling  character  had  made  a  deep  impression  on  the 
whole  army  and  it  is  recorded  that  General  Pelissier,  the  French 
commander,  "  stood  for  upward  of  an  hour  at  his  bier,  crying  like 
a  child." 

The  great  siege  was  now  in  its  final  stage.  The  condition 
of  Sebastopol  was  a  terrible  one,  the  city  in  ruins,  the  defenses  half 
destroyed,  every  available  building  crowded  with  sick  and  wounded. 
The  Russian  losses  had  been  appalling,  for  they  had  been  obliged 
to  keep  troops  constantl}-  in  the  trenches  to  meet  possible  assaults. 
A  last  attempt  to  raise  the  siege  was  made  on  August  15,  when 
60,000  Russians  attacked  the  French  and  Sardinian  lines  on  the 
river  Tchernaya,  but  met  with  total  defeat. 

On  September  5  the  allies  began  the  final  bombardment 
with  over  500  guns.  The  8th  was  fixed  for  the  general  as- 
sault. General  Pelissier  had  selected  the  hour  of  noon,  when  the 
troops  in  the  Malakov  were  relieved  and  consequently  there  would 
be  only  a  few  defenders.  The  event  justified  his  expectations. 
Though  the  attacks  on  the  Little  and  Great  Redans  were  repulsed, 
the  French  captured  the  ^Malakov  and  held  it  in  spite  of  desperate 
attempts  to  dislodge  them.  The  kxss  of  the  ALalakov  invalidated 
the  whole  Russian  line  of  defense,  and  Prince  Gorchakov  ordered 
the  evacuation  of  tlie  town.  The  Russian  troops  filed  across  the 
great  bridge  to  the  ncnlh  side  of  the  liarbor,  having  first  blown  up 
their  magazines  and  destroyed  the  remaining  ships  of  the  once  pow- 


460  TURKEY 

1855-1856 

erf  111  Black  Sea  fleet.  The  final  assault  had  cost  the  Russians  12,000, 
the  allies  10,000  men. 

The  fall  of  Sebastopol  practically  closed  the  Crimean  War. 
The  allies  prepared  for  a  new  campaign,  but  Russia  was  too  ex- 
hausted to  hope  for  success  in  a  conflict  which  had  already  cost 
her  half  a  million  men.  The  inclination  of  Russia  to  peace  was 
also  hastened  by  the  attitude  of  Austria,  which  became  more  and 
more  peremptory  in  its  demands  for  an  ending  of  the  struggle. 
Tlie  capture  of  Kars  in  Armenia  by  the  Russians  offered  a  favor- 
able opportunity  for  the  court  of  St,  Petersburg  to  yield  grace- 
fully, and  on  January  15,  1856,  a  great  council  called  by  Alexander 
II.  declared  for  peace  on  the  terms  proposed  by  Austria.  The 
French  emperor  was  well  disposed  for  peace.  The  prestige  of  the 
French  arms  had  been  greatly  heightened  by  the  last  events  of  the 
war,  and  Napoleon,  already  on  cool  terms  with  Austria,  had  no 
desire  to  drive  Russia  to  extremities.  England  alone,  anxious  to 
retrieve  the  mistakes  which  had  reduced  her  army  to  a  subordinate 
position,  was  eager  to  continue  the  struggle.  But  the  real  object 
of  the  war,  the  destruction  of  the  Russian  armaments  in  the  Black 
Sea,  had  been  attained,  and  no  good  pretext  could  be  alleged  for 
continuing  the  conflict. 

On  February  25,  1856,  the  representatives  of  the  interested 
powers  assembled  at  Paris  to  frame  a  definite  treaty  of  peace.  The 
Russians  were  quick  to  see  and  take  advantage  of  the  conciliatory 
attitude  of  the  French  emperor,  and  Count  Orlov,  one  of  the  Rus- 
sian envoys,  declared  to  Napoleon  that  Russia  threw  herself  on 
French  mercy.  In  the  debates  that  followed  France  sided  with  Rus- 
sia on  every  disputed  point,  and  it  was  only  the  firmness  of  England 
which  made  the  terms  as  severe  as  they  were.  On  March  30  the 
Treaty  of  Paris  was  signed  and  became  part  of  the  public  law  of 
Europe. 

France  and  England  had  entered  the  war  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  putting  an  end  to  Russian  preponderance  in  the  East. 
Consequently  both  powers  disclaimed  the  idea  of  taking  anything 
for  themselves,  and  the  boundaries  which  existed  before  the  war 
were  restored,  save  that  Russia  was  excluded  from  the  Danube. 
The  chief  points  of  the  treaty,  with  reference  to  the  East,  were  as 
follows : 

Art.  VII.  Turkey  was  admitted  to  the  concert  of  Europe,  and 
her  integrity  was  guaranteed. 


THE     CRIMEAN     WAR  461 

1856 

Art.  VIII.  All  disputes  between  Turkey  and  another  power 
were  to  be  referred  to  the  concert  of  powers. 

Art.  IX.  The  Porte  promised  to  protect  its  Christian  sub- 
jects, while  the  powers  disclaimed  any  intention  of  interfering  in 
their  behalf. 

Art.  XI.  No  warships  of  any  power  were  to  be  allowed  in  the 
Black  Sea,  and  no  fortifications  were  to  be  erected  on  its  shores. 

Art.  XV.  The  navigation  of  the  Danube  was  neutralized  and 
opened  to  all  nations. 

Arts.  XX.  and  XXI.  A  strip  of  Russian  territory  along  the 
Danube  was  ceded  to  the  Porte,  which  in  turn  handed  it  over  to 
Moldavia. 

Arts.  XXII.  and  XXIII.  The  principalities  of  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia  were  to  retain  all  their  former  rights  and  privileges  un- 
der the  suzerainty  of  the  Porte,  which  was  to  grant  them  an  au- 
tonomous government.  None  of  the  powers  was  to  assert  a  pro- 
tectorate over  them. 

Art.  XXVIII.  Similar  rights  and  privileges  were  guaranteed 
to  Servia  under  the  suzerainty  of  the  Porte. 

In  the  fifty  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  Treaty  of  Paris 
most  of  its  provisions  with  regard  to  Turkey  have  become  dead 
letters.  Servia  and  Rumania  have  become  independent  kingdoms. 
New  territories  have  been  wrested  from,  the  Porte,  and  the  state  of 
Bulgaria  has  been  erected.  A  great  Russian  fleet  controls  the 
Black  Sea,  while  forts  and  arsenals  have  risen  again  on  its  shores. 
But  though  the  immediate  results  of  the  Crimean  War  have  been 
lost,  one  principle  at  least  of  vital  import  for  the  future  of  tlie  Otto- 
man Empire  was  establislied:  henceforth  the  Eastern  Question  was 
not  to  be  settled  at  will  by  one  or  two  great  powers.  It  has  be- 
come the  common  concern  of  all  Europe,  and  the  future  of  Turkey 
rests  to-day  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  European  powers.  The 
almost  exclusive  predominance  of  Russia  in  the  near  East,  estab- 
lished by  Catherine  11.  and  destroyed  at  Sebastopol,  has  never  been 
recovered. 


Chapter  XXVI 

SULTAN   ABDUL   AZIZ   AND    TURKISH    EFFORTS   AT 
REFORM.     1861-1878 

THE  period  of  twenty  years  which  followed  the  Treaty  of 
Paris  was  one  of  comparative  calm  for  Turkey  and  gave 
opportunity  for  the  renewal  of  the  attempts  at  reform.  In 
her  foreign  politics  four  events  of  general  interest  dominate  the 
history  of  this  period :  the  union  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  the 
troubles  in  Syria,  the  Cretan  insurrection,  and  the  opening  of  the 
Suez  Canal. 

The  question  of  the  future  of  the  Danubian  principalities  was 
one  of  the  most  important  which  occupied  the  attention  of  the 
diplomats  at  Paris.  The  history  of  the  Rumanian  people  is  in 
some  respects  a  most  fascinating  one.  Whence  came  this  people 
with  the  characteristics  of  a  Latin  race  and  speaking  a  Romance 
tongue,  whom  we  find  far  away  from  the  other  Latin  races,  sur- 
rounded by  a  sea  of  Slavic  peoples?  Forgotten  for  centuries,  or 
rather  unknown,  they  suddenly  appear  triumphing  over  Turkish 
domination  and  asserting  in  the  face  of  European  inertia  their  right 
to  enter  the  ranks  of  independent  nations.  The  Rumanians  ^  are 
probably  the  descendants  of  the  Roman  colonists  settled  in  the 
province  of  Dacia  by  the  Emperor  Trajan  to  form  a  bulwark  of 
the  empire  against  the  barbarians  of  the  North.  Driven  from  the 
plains  after  the  evacuation  of  Dacia  by  the  Roman  legions,  these 
colonists  retreated  before  the  influx  of  barbarians  to  the  impreg- 
nable defiles  of  the  Carpathian  Alountains,  where  they  preserved 
the  Latin  language  and  the  Roman  traditions.  For  centuries  the 
Dacian  plains  were  swept  by  waves  of  barbarian  invaders,  the 
Slavs,  the  Goths,  the  Huns,  and  the  Tartars.  It  was  not  till  the 
thirteenth  century  that  the  Rumanians,  leaving  their  mountain 
fastnesses,  took  possession  of  the  plains  on  both  sides  of  the  Car- 
pathians and  settled  in  three  communities — Transyl\-ania,  Molda- 

^  Xenepol's  "  Histoire  des  Roiimains "  is  the  chief  work  ou  Ruinanian  his- 
tory. 

463 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  463 

1858 

via,  and  Wallachia.  Never,  perhaps,  a  pure  Latin  race,  for  they 
had  mixed  with  the  Slavs  and  Thracians,  they  still  preserve  in  the 
main  the  Latin  blood  and  language.  For  centuries  more  the 
Dacian  provinces  formed  the  battleground  of  eastern  Europe,  where 
Hungarian,  Pole,  Russian,  and  Turk  contended  for  the  mastery. 
Still,  in  spite  of  constant  warfare,  both  Moldavia  and  Wallachia 
grew  and  had  their  periods  of  glory  and  power,  Moldavia  in  the 
fifteenth  century  under  Stephen  the  Great,  Wallachia  in  the  six- 
teenth century  under  Michael  the  Brave.  But  the  principalities 
were  too  feeble  in  the  long  run  to  resist  the  advance  of  the  Turks. 
They  were  not,  however,  incorporated  in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  but 
became  vassal  states,  wdiose  relations  with  the  Porte  were  regu- 
lated by  capitulations.  At  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century  the 
Rumanians  lost  the  right  to  choose  their  own  princes  or  Hospo- 
dars,  who  were  now  appointed  by  the  Porte,  not  from  the  native 
nobility,  but  from  the  rich  Greeks  of  the  Fanar  quarter  in  Con- 
stantinople. The  Fanariot  period  is  the  most  humiliating  in 
Rumanian  history.  The  dignity  of  liospodar  was  bought  and  sold 
and  the  Greek  rulers  oppressed  the  population  in  every  way.  Th.e 
wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  resulted  in  the  gradual  supplanting 
of  Turkish  influence  by  the  Russians,  who  virtually  established  a 
protectorate  over  the  Rumanians  which  lasted  till  destroyed  in  the 
Crimean  War.  Meantime  the  national  spirit  of  the  peoples  had 
revived  to  a  marked  degree,  and  had  culminated  in  the  unsuccess- 
ful revolt  of  1848.  Now,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  Moldavia  and  Wal- 
lachia were  permitted  to  elect  their  own  Hospodars  and  to  form 
constitutions  of  their  own,  subject  to  the  suzerainty  of  the  Porte. 
The  Rumanians  were  quick  to  take  advantage  of  their  concessions 
in  a  way  quite  unlooked  for  by  the  Eurojiean  powers.  The  Divans 
convoked  in  both  provinces  to  draw  up  the  constitutions  were  fully 
inspired  with  the  unionist  spirit,  and  both  voted  for  a  union  of 
Moldavia  and  \\"allachia  under  a  common  sovereign.  The  Turks 
violently  protested  against  such  an  arrangement,  while  France 
supported  the  assemblies.  A  conference  held  at  Paris  in  1858, 
however,  decided  against  the  union  and  determined  that  there 
should  be  a  ITospodar  elected  in  each  province  for  life,  a  separate 
judicature  and  a  separate  legislature,  while  as  a  concession  to  the 
unionists  there  should  be  a  central  committee  to  prepare  projects 
of  laws  on  matters  of  joint  interest.  Again  the  assein1)]ies  battled 
the   intentions   of   the   powers,   both   choosing   as   their   Hospodar 


464.  TURKEY 

1858-1881 

Colonel  Alexander  Coiiza.  Again  the  Porte  protested,  but  the 
powers  finally  gave  up  the  struggle,  and  Coiiza  was  invested  by  the 
Sultan  "  as  an  exception,  for  this  time  only."  The  election  of  a 
common  Hospodar  soon  put  an  end  to  the  rest  of  the  dual  system. 
Within  three  years  the  Porte  assented  under  protest  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  single  ministry  and  a  single  parliament  for  the  two 
principalities.  All  that  was  now  necessary  for  a  complete  union  was 
the  substitution  of  an  hereditary  prince  for  an  elective  Hospodar,  and 
this  was  not  long  in  coming.  Prince  Couza  posed  as  a  champion  of 
the  peasantry  against. the  nobles  or  boyars,  and  succeeded  in  abolish- 
ing many  oppressive  dues  and  services  to  which  the  common  people 
were  subject.  This  attitude  made  him  extremely  unpopular  among 
the  ruling  classes,  and  after  an  attempt  on  his  part  to  increase  his 
power  by  the  substitution  of  a  new  constitution  (1864)  Prince 
Couza  was  deposed  by  a  military  revolution  in  1866.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  union  was  again  brought  up  in  England,  which  declared 
that  the  united  state  was  "  incompatible  with  the  integrity  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire."  ^  But  again  the  rapid  action  of  the  Rumanians 
anticipated  the  demands  of  the  powers.  The  Rumanian  parliament 
hastened  to  choose  Prince  Charles  of  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen  as 
hereditary  prince,  and  he  took  the  oath  of  office  May  24,  1866.  His 
position  was  for  a  time  a  critical  one.  His  own  relative,  King 
William  of  Prussia,  told  him  that  "  he  was  taking  the  matter  on  his 
own  shoulders,"  and  all  the  powers  abstained  from  recognizing 
him  while  the  Porte  threatened  war.  But,  thanks  to  the  ability  of 
the  Rumanian  ambassador,  Gilka,  and  the  support  of  France,  the 
Porte  finally  yielded  and  granted  the  investiture  to  Prince  Charles. 
The  recognition  of  the  Western  powers  soon  followed,  and  the  com- 
plete union  of  Rumania  was  established.  Prince  Charles  soon 
proved  himself  a  wise  and  popular  ruler,  and  his  fortunate  mar- 
riage with  the  Princess  Elizabeth  of  ^^^ied,  who  is  beloved  by  the 
whole  nation,  has  greatly  strengthened  the  bonds  between  the  peo- 
ple and  the  royal  family.  In  1878  Rumania  became  wholly  inde- 
pendent of  Turkey,  and  in  1881  Prince  Charles  was  crowned  King 
of  Rumania.  Since  then  the  history  of  Rumania  has  been  a  peace- 
ful, and  in  the  main  a  prosperous  one,  only  troubled  by  the  question 
of  the  Jews,  toward  whom  the  Rumanians  cherish  special  animosity. 
The  i)rincipality  of  Servia  had  also  been  freed  from  the  prac- 
tical  Russian  protectorate  by  the   Crimean   War,   and   was   now 

'^  Protocol,  :March  iC,  i866. 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  465 

1858-1863 

placed  under  the  joint  protection  of  Europe,  tliough  the  overlord- 
ship  of  the  Sultan  was  still  recognized.  A  delicate  question  which 
now  arose  over  the  Turkish  garrisons  in  Servia  threatened  for 
a  time  to  make  difficulties.  The  Turkish  troops  in  garrison  at 
Belgrade  and  other  fortresses  were  poorly  fed  and  rarely  paid,  and 
lost  no  opportunity  to  plunder  their  Christian  neighbors.  Their 
conduct  bitterly  exasperated  the  Servians,  who  in  1858  deposed 
the  Prince  Alexander  Karageorgevitch  as  too  subservient  to  Turk- 
ish influence  and  recalled  the  old  Prince  Milosh.  In  1862  the 
long-standing  bitterness  between  the  Turkish  garrisons  and  the 
Servians  came  to  a  head  and  the  Turkish  garrison  of  Belgrade 
bombarded  the  town.  For  a  time  the  quarrel  was  patched  up,  but 
in  1866  the  Prince  ]\Iichael  Obrenovitch,  son  of  Milosh,  formally 
demanded  the  withdrawal  of  the  garrisons.  The  Porte,  though 
recognizing  the  uselessness  of  the  garrisons,  was  unwilling  to  with- 
draw, but  pressure  from  Austria  and  France  finally  forced  it  to 
yield,  and  Servia  was  freed  from  Turkish  troops.  In  1868  Prince 
Michael  was  assassinated  by  adherents  of  the  Karageorgevitch 
family  and  was  succeeded  by  his  cousin,  Milan  IV.,  who  was  rec- 
ognized by  the  Turks  as  hereditary  prince.  The  assassination  of 
Michael  increased  the  bitterness  between  the  rival  families,  the 
Karageorgevitch  and  Obrenovitch,  and  the  feud  continues  to 
this  day. 

A  more  serious  matter  for  the  Ottoman  Empire  was  the  out- 
break of  i860  in  Syria,  which  forced  a  direct  intervention  of  the 
emperor's  powers.  The  evacuation  of  Syria  by  the  Egyptians  in 
1841  had  left  the  province  in  a  state  of  semi-anarchy.  This  was 
especially  true  of  the  Lebanon  region,  where  a  bitter  feud  existed 
between  the  rival  Druses  and  Maronites.  The  Alaronites  were  a 
Christian  sect  affiliated  with  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  and 
therefore  regarded  by  France  as  under  her  special  protection.  The 
Druses,  a  race  of  mixed  origin  with  a  jieculiar  religion  of  their 
own.  were  fewer  in  numbers  than  the  ]\Iaronitcs,  but  their  fierce 
and  warlike  character  enabled  them  to  more  than  hold  their  own 
against  their  neighbors.  The  Crimean  War  was  followed  by  a  dis- 
tinct increase  of  Mohammedan  fanaticism  in  the  Ottoman  Empire 
against  both  Christian  friend  and  foe.  An  outbreak  at  Djedda  in 
Arabia,  where  the  hVench  and  the  English  consuls  were  murdered, 
was  the  first  symptom  of  this  agitation.  In  Syria  it  took  a  still 
more  serious  form.    The  Druses,  encouraged  by  their  Mohammedan 


466  TURKEY 

1821-1866 

neighbors,  fell  upon  the  Maronites,  while  the  mob  rose  in  Damascus 
and  slaughtered  6000  Christians.  It  was  due  to  the  famous  Arab 
exile  Abdel  Kader,  who  had  for  many  years  fought  against  the 
French  in  Algeria,  that  the  slaughter  was  finally  stayed.  Indignant 
at  the  dishonor  to  Islam,  this  high-minded  man  armed  his  follow- 
ers, and  partly  by  force,  partly  by  the  great  authority  he  possessed 
among  Mohammedans,  succeeded  in  saving  the  rest  of  the 
Christians. 

The  Syrian  massacres  aroused  the  European  powers  for  once 
to  united  action,  and  at  the  suggestion  of  Russia  12,000  French 
troops  landed  at  Beirut  and  occupied  the  Lebanon.  At  the  same 
time  the  Porte  sent  to  Damascus  the  energetic  Fuad  Pasha,  who 
soon  suppressed  the  disorders  and  executed  a  number  of  the  ring- 
leaders, including  the  governor  of  the  city,  Muchir  Ahmed.  In 
1 861  a  commission  of  the  powers  met  in  Paris  and  drew  up  a  new 
form  of  government  for  the  Lebanon.  A  Christian  governor  was 
appointed,  assisted  by  a  council  of  leading  men  from  all  the  warring 
races.  The  equality  of  Christians,  Druses,  and  Mohammedans  was 
proclaimed,  and  a  mixed  police  organized  to  keep  order.  Since 
then  the  Lebanon  has  been  free  from  serious  troubles  and  no 
further  intervention  has  been  necessary. 

The  island  of  Crete  or  Candia  has,  ever  since  its  conquest 
from  Venice,  proved  a  turbulent  possession  for  the  Turks.  The 
warlike  Candiotes  had  risen  in  1821  at  the  time  of  the  Greek 
revolution,  but  the  short-sighted  policy  of  the  powers  restored 
the  island  to  Turkey,  which  turned  it  over  to  Mohammed  Ali,  the 
viceroy  of  Egypt.  But  the  Candiotes,  Greeks  in  blood,  language, 
and  common  interest,  continued  to  hope  for  a  union  with  their 
brethren  on  the  mainland.  In  1841,  on  the  restoration  of  Crete 
to  the  Porte,  and  again  in  1858  abortive  risings  had  taken  place,  and 
the  Porte  made  the  usual  fruitless  promises  of  reform.  The  exam- 
ple of  the  union  of  the  Ionian  Islands  with  Greece  in  1864  and  the 
continued  abuses  and  extortions  of  the  Turkish  governor  led  in 
1866  to  a  new  rising.  An  assembly  of  Christians  in  arms  issued 
a  demand  for  religious  liberty,  reform  of  the  arbitrary  taxes,  and 
reorganization  of  the  courts,  which  had  been  administered  wholly 
in  the  interests  of  the  Mohammedan  minority."     These  demands 

■"■  The  Cretan  question  has,  unlike  the  Servian  and  Rinnanian.  been  compli- 
cated by  the  presence  of  a  large  Mohammedan  element.  In  1866  there  were 
70,000  ^Mohammedans  to  200,000  Christians,  but  the  number  of  the  former  has 
now  been  much  reduced  by  emigration. 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  467 

1866-1869 

were  refused,  and  on  August  28,  1866,  the  Cretans  issued  a  procla- 
mation abjuring  their  Turkish  allegiance  and  proclaiming  their 
union  with  Greece.  The  Turkish  troops  were  defeated  at  Kreises 
and  Apacorona,  and  for  nearly  two  years  the  insurgents,  aided  by 
Greek  volunteers,  maintained  the  unequal  struggle. 

The  Cretan  insurrection  aroused  great  interest  and  much  sym- 
pathy in  Europe,  and  public  meetings  in  France  and  England  called 
for  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  insurgents.  But  the  English  Gov- 
ernment, feeling  bound  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  to  defend  the  integ- 
rity of  Turkey,  steadily  refused  to  interfere,  and  thus  made  con- 
certed action  among  the  powers  impossible.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Ottoman  Government  persistently  refused  to  listen  to  any  pro- 
posed union  of  Crete  with  Greece,  and  Fuad  Pasha  declared  that  a 
second  Navarino  would  be  necessary  before  the  Turks  gave  up  the 
island.  Meantime  the  Greeks  were  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the 
Cretan  cause.  The  ministry,  led  by  a  Trikoupis,  adopted  an  atti- 
tude distinctly  hostile  to  Turkey,  and  allowed  men  and  supplies  to 
be  sent  to  the  aid  of  the  insurgents.  The  Turkish  efforts  to  estab- 
lish an  efficient  blockade  of  the  Cretan  coast  were  a  total  failure. 
But  in  spite  of  this  outside  assistance  and  of  their  own  valor  the 
contest  was  too  unequal  for  the  Cretans.  Led  by  the  able  Hussein 
Avni,  the  Turks  began  to  gain  ground.  In  December,  1868,  the 
Porte  sent  an  ultimatum  to  Athens,  demanding  that  the  Greeks 
should  cease  giving  aid  to  the  Cretans,  and  in  order  to  emphasize 
this  demand  an  army  was  assembled  on  the  border  of  Thessaly  under 
the  veteran  Omar  Pasha.  HLowever,  the  insurrection  was  rapidly 
drawing  to  a  close  and  the  capture  of  a  Greek  volunteer  force  under 
Colonel  Petropoulakis  gave  it  the  finishing  blow.  The  movement 
was  not,  however,  entirely  fruitless.  The  Turkish  Grand  Vizier 
Aali  Pasha  had  made  a  tour  of  the  island  in  1867,  and  the  result 
of  his  recommendations  was  tlie  Pact  of  ITale])pa,  which  provided 
for  the  reduction  of  certain  obnoxious  taxes,  the  establishment  of 
mixed  courts,  and  tlie  ecpial  rej^resentation  of  Christians  and  Mo- 
hammedans in  the  local  councils,  although  the  former  outnumbered 
the  latter  three  to  one. 

Perhaps  the  most  momentous  event  which  marks  this  period 
in  the  history  of  the  T^'ist  was  the  opening  of  the  Suez  Canal  in 
1869.  Tlic  project  of  a  closer  connection  between  East  and  West 
through  a  waterway  between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  Mediterranean 
had  agitated  the  minds  of  men  from  the  earliest  ages  of  civilization. 


468  TURKEY 

1869 

It  is  certain  that  at  a  very  remote  period  an  indirect  waterway  did 
exist,  A  canal  whose  construction  was  ascribed  by  the  ancients  to 
the  great  conqueror  Sesostris  (Rameses  II.)  connected  the  Nile 
and  the  Red  Sea  in  the  time  of  the  old  Egyptian  Empire.  This 
canal,  ninety  miles  in  length  from  the  Red  Sea  to  Bubastis  on  the 
Nile,  was  restored  from  time  to  time  by  the  Ptolemies,  by  the 
Emperor  Trajan,  and  by  the  Arab  conqueror  Amru,  but  finally 
fell  into  disuse  before  the  resistless  encroachment  of  the  desert 
sands. 

The  project  of  a  canal,  however,  was  never  quite  forgotten, 
and  with  the  growth  of  French  influence  in  the  East  was  revived 
both  in  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  and  in  that  of  his  successor,  Louis 
XV.  A  more  definite  plan  dates  from  the  expedition  of  Napoleon 
to  Egypt,  1798,  when  his  chief  of  engineers,  Lepere,  surveyed  both 
the  old  route  and  a  new  one  directly  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez, 
The  routes  were  again  surveyed  in  1847  by  an  English  engineer, 
Stephenson,  who  declared  them  impracticable  and  proposed  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  Cairo  to  Suez.  The  English  Gov- 
ernment realized  fully  the  infinite  importance  of  a  shorter  route 
to  their  Indian  possessions,  and  obtained  from  the  Viceroy  of  Egypt 
the  necessary  concession  for  a  railroad.  But  despite  the  unfavor- 
able English  view  on  the  practicability  of  a  canal,  a  Frenchman, 
Count  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps,  had  great  faith  in  its  possibilities. 
Born  of  a  distinguished  consular  family,  his  father,  a  friend  and 
adviser  of  the  great  Viceroy  Mohammed  Ali,  De  Lesseps  was  able 
to  gain  the  support,  not  only  of  the  French  Government,  but  also 
of  the  Viceroy  Said  Pasha,  his  personal  friend.  De  Lesseps's  plan 
was  a  departure  from  all  the  earlier  schemes  for  a  canal.  Abandon- 
ing the  route  from  the  Nile  to  the  Red  Sea,  he  proposed  to  cut  a 
waterway  directly  through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  from  Suez  on  the 
Red  Sea  to  Damietta  on  the  Mediterranean.  In  1854  he  obtained 
the  needful  concession  from  Said,  in  whose  hands  the  Porte,  as  yet 
indifferent,  left  the  whole  affair.  But  the  plans  of  De  Lesseps  met 
with  bitter  opposition  from  England.  Prejudiced  against  a  canal  by 
the  unfavorable  reports  of  their  engineers,  as  well  as  by  their  own- 
ership of  the  railroad  concession,  the  British  Government  was  still 
more  opposed  on  political  grounds.  The  English  had  long  looked 
with  uneasiness  on  the  growth  of  French  influence  in  Egypt,  and  the 
construction  by  Frenchmen  of  a  canal  so  important  to  British  in- 
terests was  peculiarly  distasteful.     Lord   Palmerston  declared   in 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  469 

1869 

the  House  of  Lords  (September  7,  1857)  that  the  whole  scheme 
was  a  swindle  designed  to  impose  on  credulous  capitalists.  The  un- 
dertaking was  a  physical  impossibility,  and  the  enormous  cost  would 
soon  prove  its  futility. 

In  spite  of  English  opposition  the  energy  of  De  Lesseps  tri- 
umphed over  all  obstacles.  By  a  new  agreement  of  1856  a  stock 
company  was  formed  to  construct  the  canal.  The  canal  was  to  be 
neutral  and  open  to  ships  of  all  nations.  After  ninety-nine  years 
the  ownership  of  the  canal  was  to  fall  to  the  Eg}^ptian  Government, 
which  in  the  meantime  was  to  receive  ten  per  cent,  of  the  net  profits. 
Fortified  by  this  agreement  and  supported  by  the  favor  of  the 
Empress  Eugenie  and  by  the  backing  of  capitalists  in  England  as 
well  as  in  France  De  Lesseps  now  vigorously  pushed  the  work. 
The  British  Government  still  opposed  the  construction,  and  on  the 
death  of  Said  in  1863  and  the  accession  of  the  ambitious  and  ex- 
travagant Ismail,  fresh  attempts  were  made  to  hinder  the  enter- 
prise by  persuading  the  Porte  to  impose  new  terms  on  the  com- 
pany. 

The  intervention,  however,  of  Napoleon  III.  obtained  for 
the  company  a  favorable  compromise,  which  was  accepted  both  by 
Egypt  and  the  Porte  in  1866,  and  the  work  of  construction  was 
rapidly  pushed  forward.  The  fact  that  the  course  of  the  canal  lay 
largely  through  a  chain  of  shallow  lakes  and  only  a  third  through 
the  sandy  desert,  greatly  decreased  the  difficulties  of  excavation. 
At  first  60,000  of  the  Egyptian  fellaheen  were  employed  in  the 
work.  But  the  new  agreement  considerably  reduced  this  number, 
for  laborers  were  needed  elsewhere  in  the  new  cotton  culture  which 
had  arisen  during  the  American  Civil  War.  The  place  of  these 
laborers  was,  however,  amply  supplied  by  the  great  dredging  ma- 
chines constructed  by  the  French  engineers  and  estimated  to  do  the 
work  of  100,000  men.  After  twelve  years'  labor  the  great  task 
was  completed.  In  length  the  canal  was  about  eighty  miles,  with 
a  width  varying  from  sixty  to  a  hundred  yards,  and  a  minimum 
depth  of  twenty-six  feet.  The  enormous  difficulties  of  the  task 
are  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  excavation  through  the  Desert  of 
El  Gisehr  alone,  less  than  a  third  of  the  route,  required  the  re- 
moval of  fifteen  million  cubic  yards  of  sand.  At  the  terminals  of 
the  canal,  Port  Said  on  the  Mediterranean,  Suez  on  the  Red  Sea, 
great  artificial  harl)ors  liad  to  be  constructed.  Tlie  opening  of  the 
carial  gave  to  Ismail  l^asha  an  ojjportunity  for  gratifying  to  the 


470  TURKEY 

1869 

Utmost  his  extravag-ant  love  of  display.  No  less  than  six  thousand 
persons  were  invited  to  attend  the  magnificent  festivities  as  his 
guests,  including  among  them  the  Empress  Eugenie,  the  Emperor 
Franz  Josef  of  Austria,  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick  William  of 
Prussia,  and  the  great  Arab  leader  Abdel  Kader,  besides  a  host  of 
other  notables.  The  festivities  were  conducted  on  a  scale  of  truly 
Oriental  splendor.  On  November  17,  1869,  the  formal  open- 
ing took  place,  and  after  the  ceremonies  the  distinguished  guests 
boarded  the  empress's  yacht  L'Aigle,  which  traversed  the  whole 
course  of  the  canal  at  the  head  of  a  procession  of  over  a  hundred 
vessels.  De  Lesseps  was  the  hero  of  the  hour,  and  congratulations 
were  showered  upon  him  from  all  sides.  In  an  eloquent  speech 
delivered  at  the  formal  opening  he  summed  up  the  whole  spirit  of 
the  undertaking  when  he  declared  that  since  the  beginning  of  the 
work  there  was  not  one  of  the  humblest  laborers  who  could  not 
hold  himself  for  an  agent  of  civilization. 

The  immense  import  of  the  Suez  Canal  is  too  well  appreciated 
to  need  illustration.  By  the  binding  of  the  Red  Sea  with  the  Medi- 
terranean the  Far  East  has  literally  been  brought  three  thousand 
miles  nearer  to  Europe  and  America,  and  the  Mediterranean  has 
once  more  become  the  great  highway  of  commerce  between  Europe 
and  Asia. 

If  we  turn  from  external  events  to  examine  the  internal  his- 
tory of  Turkey  we  find  that  this  period  is  one  of  apparent  reform 
activity.  An  excellent  opportunity  was  given  the  Turks  to  justify 
the  confidence  of  their  friends  in  Europe  and  to  show  that  Turkey 
was  no  degenerate  state,  but  one  fully  capable  of  entering  the  path 
of  civilization  and  prosperity.  But  however  much  the  liberals 
of  the  West  were  mistaken  in  their  roseate  views  of  the  future 
progress  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  the  Turks  reaped  for  the  time 
being  a  notable  advantage  from  the  temporary  high  favor  in  which 
they  stood.  One  provision  of  the  Treaty  of  Paris  naively  states  in 
their  behalf  that  "  means  shall  be  sought  to  benefit  by  the  science, 
the  art,  and  the  funds  of  Europe,"  and  the  Turks  have  at  least  most 
zealously  fulfilled  this  last  promise ! 

We  have  seen  that  the  sweeping  changes  promised  by  Abdul 
Med j id  had  no  lasting  importance,  and  that  the  chief  obstacle  to 
any  real  reform  was  the  depressed  condition  of  the  Christian  popu- 
lation of  the  empire.  The  powers  had  realized  this  difficulty  at 
the  time  of  the  Congress  of  Paris,  and  had  made  urgent  representa- 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  471 

1869 

tions  to  the  Porte  regarding  the  status  of  the  Christians.  In  re- 
sponse to  these  appeals  the  Porte  issued  a  decree  which  was  incor- 
porated in  the  Treaty  of  Paris  and  thus  held  to  constitute  a  part 
of  the  law  of  nations.  This  decree,  known  as  the  Hatti  Humaiun, 
was  promulgated  February  19,  1856.  It  consisted  largely  of  a  repeti- 
tion of  the  vague  promises  of  the  Hattisherif  of  Giilhane.  It  pro- 
claimed the  abolition  of  two  of  the  chief  disabilities  under  which 
the  Christian  labored,  the  exclusion  from  the  army  and  from  the 
courts.  The  equality  of  all  subjects  before  the  law  was  affirmed, 
toleration  of  all  sects  was  decreed,  public  schools  were  thrown 
open  to  all,  and  mixed  courts  were  to  be  established. 

The  Hatti  Humaiun  of  1856,  on  the  surface  a  wise  and  salu- 
tary measure,  split  as  a  matter  of  fact  on  the  very  rocks  of  religious 
prejudice  it  was  intended  to  remove.  It  was  never  enforced  and 
probably  was  never  intended  to  be.  The  application  of  such  a  meas- 
ure would  have  meant  a  sweeping  revolution,  upsetting  all  the  prin- 
ciples and  traditions  on  which  the  Turks  had  built  and  maintained 
their  dominion.  The  religion  of  Islam,  at  least  as  interpreted  by 
the  Turks  who  had  conquered  in  its  name,  allowed  no  place  for  the 
equality  of  the  infidel  in  its  system.  The  only  provision  for  non- 
Moslem  peoples  was  contained  in  the  trenchant  phrase  "  conversion, 
tribute,  or  the  sword."  Now  Islam,  to  the  great  mass  of  the  Mo- 
hammedans in  the  Ottoman  Empire,  was  and  is  not  merely  their 
religion,  but  also  their  law  and  rule  of  conduct  in  all  affairs  of 
life.  Hence  the  idea  of  the  equality  of  Christians  with  Mohammed- 
ans was  abhorrent  to  them,  not  only  because  it  violated  the  cus- 
tom of  centuries,  but  also  because  it  was  contrary  to  the  dictates 
of  that  faith  which  formed  such  an  intimate  and  tremendously  im- 
portant part  of  their  whole  life.  The  enforcement  of  a  decree  strik- 
ing so  vitally  at  the  roots  of  a  deep-seated  religious  prejudice  was 
a  task  well-nigh  impossible  even  to  the  most  zealous  reformers.  So 
the  provisions  of  the  Hatti  Humaiun  remained  for  the  most  part 
dead  letters.  The  Christians  were  to  be  admitted  to  the  army.  But 
this  was  opposed  not  only  by  zealous  Mohammedans,  who  declared 
that  "  it  would  be  like  forming  an  advance  guard  to  the  armies  of 
the  Czar,"  but  also  by  the  Christians  themselves,  who  showed  little 
enthusiasm  for  the  privilege  of  fighting  tlie  battles  of  the  Sultan. 
Though  the  equality  of  all  before  the  law  was  proclaimed,  it  was 
never  enforced;  tlie  reform  of  tlie  courts  proved  a  failure,  antl  re- 
cusant Mohammedans  were  still  put  to  death  in  spite  of  the  decree 


472  TURKEY 

1869 

of  religious  toleration.  It  is  true  that  something  was  done  to  secure 
for  the  Christians  a  share  in  the  local  administration,  and  the  Law 
of  the  Vilayets  in  1864  provided  for  the  establishment  of  local 
councils  in  which  Christians  were  to  be  represented.  But  no  real 
powers  were  given  these  councils,  and  care  was  taken  that  the  bal- 
ance of  pov/er  should  be  held  by  Mohammedans.  In  fact,  the  whole 
programme  of  reform  had  but  two  real  results :  The  Ottoman  army 
was  greatly  improved,  and  the  Turks,  through  the  sympathy 
aroused  by  the  supposed  reform  movement,  were  enabled  to  borrow 
heavily  in  Europe. 

The  sincerity  of  the  ministerial  oligarchy  in  carrying  out  the 
Tanzimat,  as  the  projected  reform  programme  was  called,  is  indeed 
seriously  open  to  question.  Fuad  Pasha,  the  leading  figure  among 
the  ministers,  was  by  no  means  bound  by  the  old  religious  con- 
servatism of  the  Ulema,  who  look  with  horror  on  European  innova- 
tions. But  neither  was  he  in  sympathy  with  such  sweeping  changes 
as  the  placing  of  Christians  on  terms  of  equality  with  the  Moham- 
medans, nor  with  the  demands  of  a  small  group  of  young  men  who, 
educated  in  the  ideals  of  the  West,  began  to  demand  a  constitu- 
tional regime  as  the  only  salvation  of  the  empire.  Yet  Fuad  and 
his  adherents,  though  ever  intent  on  maintaining  their  oligarchic 
control  of  the  government,  did  accomplish  some  lasting  reforms 
and  succeeded  in  strengthening  the  army  and  navy,  and  for  a  time 
improving  the  administration  and  the  finances.  But  their  en- 
lightened policy  was  destined  to  be  suddenly  checked. 

In  1 86 1  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  died,  and  was  succeeded,  accord- 
ing to  Mohammedan  law,  by  his  younger  brother  Abdul  Aziz  and 
not  by  his  son  Murad.  Abdul  Aziz  was  in  every  respect,  save 
weakness  of  character,  the  opposite  of  his  brotlier.  Stupid,  sen- 
sual, and  cruel,  he  was  wholly  lacking  in  ability,  and  was  content 
to  leave  affairs  of  state  in  the  hands  of  his  ministers.  His  true 
character  was  amply  displayed  to  Europe  on  the  occasion  of  his 
visit  to  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1867,  and  Fuad  Pasha,  who  accom- 
panied him,  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  his  master  from  com- 
pletely disgusting  his  distinguished  hosts.  Abdul  Aziz's  ignorance 
is  plainly  shown  by  the  fact  that  on  first  seeing  the  Rhine  he  asked 
if  it  was  not  a  canal  dug  for  his  entertainment!  The  Sultan  was 
also  extremely  reactionary  in  his  views,  and  the  fall  of  his  pro- 
gressive ministers  was  only  a  matter  of  time.  Fuad  Pasha  fell  into 
disgrace  as  a  result  of  the  Sultan's  tour  in  the  West,  and  died 


EFFORTSAT    REFORM  478 

1869-1871 

in  exile  at  Nice.^  In  him  Turkey  lost  the  ablest  minister  it  had 
seen  for  two  centuries.  His  colleague  Aali  did  not  long  survive 
him,  and  the  year  1871  saw  the  accession  to  power  of  a  reactionary 
ministry  headed  by  Mohammed  Nedim,  an  ignorant  favorite  of 
the  Sultan  and  a  nominee  of  the  Harem.  The  time  was  ripe  for  a 
reaction.  The  Turks,  both  liberal  and  conservative,  were  deeply 
irritated  by  the  constant  intervention  of  the  European  powers,  and 
the  more  fanatical  elements  called  for  a  return  to  pure  Islamism, 
the  rejection  of  modern  innovations,  and  war  on  the  Christian  and 
the  foreigner.  The  next  few  years  are  marked  by  the  wretched 
misgovernment  of  an  incompetent  ministry,  by  disorder  in  the 
finances  due  to  an  extravagant  policy  which  drove  Turkey  into 
temporary  bankruptcy,  by  the  repudiation  of  half  the  debt,  and  by 
an  increased  hostility  against  the  Christian  population. 

At  the  same  time  a  distinct  revival  of  Russian  influence  in 
the  East  was  taking  place.  Under  the  liberal  Alexander  H.,  the 
emancipator  of  the  serfs,  Russia  had  been  slowly  healing  the  wounds 
of  the  Crimean  War  and  was  now  prepared  to  reassert  her  influ- 
ence. The  outbreak  of  the  Franco-Prussian  War  in  1870  offered 
an  excellent  opportunity  to  begin  the  reconstruction  of  her  Oriental 
policy.  The  first  step  was  to  procure  the  abrogation  of  the  obnox- 
ious Treaty  of  Paris,  which  had  been  S(j  prejudicial  to  Russian 
power  and  prestige.  Accordingly  in  October,  1870,  the  chan- 
cellor, Prince  Gorchakov,  proclaimed  that  the  Russian  Government 
no  longer  considered  itself  bound  by  those  articles  of  the  treaty 
which  forbade  the  maintenance  of  Russian  war  vessels  in  the  Black 
Sea  and  the  erection  of  forts  and  arsenals  on  its  shores.  This  an- 
nouncement caused  great  consternation  in  Europe,  but  none  of  the 
great  powers  was  in  a  position  t(j  resist,  and  a  conference  held  at 
London  in  January,  1871,  practically  confirmed  the  demands  of 
Gorchakov.  Thus  without  shedding  a  drop  of  blood  or  spending  a 
ruble,  Russia  was  able  to  obtain  the  abrogation  of  the  Treaty 
of  Paris  and  to  efface  in  great  part  the  results  of  the  Crimean 
War. 

A  new  menace  to  Turkey  was  the  growth  of  the  Panslavist 
propaganda — a  movement  which  dreamed  of  a  federation  of  Slavic 
states  with  Russia  at  the  head.    This  j^ropaganda,  which  threatened 

4  The  political  testament  of  Iniad  recently  puhlislied  forms  a  remarkable 
commentary  on  Turkish  history  of  the  time,  and  fully  sustains  Fuad's  reputation 
as  a  clear-headed  and  far-sighted  statesman. 


474.  TURKEY 

1871-1875 

especially  the  European  provinces  of  Turkey,  had  become  very 
popular  among  the  upper  classes  in  Russia,  and  soon  had  a  complete 
organization,  with  headquarters  in  Moscow  and  agents  in  all  the 
provinces  of  European  Turkey,  who  were  busy  sowing  revolu- 
tionary sentiments  among  the  Christians.  At  the  head  of  this  or- 
ganization in  Turkey  stood  the  able  Russian  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, Count  Ignatiev,  who,  besides,  had  acquired  a  very  great 
influence  over  the  Sultan  and  his  corrupt  ministers. 

Affairs  were  thus  going  from  bad  to  worse  in  Turkey.  The 
unbounded  extravagance  of  Abdul  Aziz  and  the  incompetent  man- 
agement of  his  ministers  had  forced  the  state  into  bankruptcy,  while 
his  subservience  to  Russia  had  aroused  general  discontent  among 
his  Mohammedan  subjects.  In  1875  the  culmination  of  evils  came 
in  the  revolt  of  the  Christian  population  in  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina. The  upper  classes  in  these  provinces  had  turned  Moham- 
medan in  the  time  of  Mohammed  II.,  and  had  ever  since  exercised 
a  most  oppressive  rule  over  the  masses  of  the  Christian  popula- 
tion. At  this  time  the  oppression  was  redoubled  by  the  wretched 
administration  of  the  Porte  and  by  the  reactionary  movement  which 
was  sweeping  over  the  whole  empire.  In  the  summer  of  1875  the 
Christians  rose  in  arms  and,  aided  by  their  brethren  from  Servia 
and  Montenegro,  defeated  and  expelled  the  Turkish  troops  in  the 
provinces.  In  vain  did  the  European  consuls  attempt  to  mediate. 
The  movement  spread  rapidly,  and  the  Turks  dispatched  a  great 
army  of  100,000  men  to  suppress  the  rising.  The  intervention  of 
the  three  emperors  of  Russia,  Germany,  and  Austria,  in  the  so- 
called  League  of  the  Three  Emperors,  forced  the  Porte  to  issue  an 
irade  promising  reforms.  A  .new  complication  now  arose.  The 
Mohammedan  ruling  class,  fearing  a  loss  of  their  supremacy,  rose 
in  arms  in  their  turn  and  a  wave  of  fanaticism  spread  over  the  whole 
of  the  European  provinces.  In  Salonika  the  Mohammedan  mob 
murdered  the  French  and  German  consuls,  and  the  Turkish  officials 
did  nothing  to  prevent  the  outrage. 

The  disasters  of  the  last  few  years  greatly  strengthened  the 
reform  elements  among  the  Turks,  especially  among  the  Ulema 
and  the  Softas  or  students  of  Constantinople.  A  small  but  active 
party  had  existed  among  the  upper  classes  for  many  years  which 
had  become  imbued  with  modern  liberal  ideas,  and  had  for  long 
contended  that  the  only  salvation  of  Turkey  lay  in  the  adoption  of 
a   constitutional   system   based  on   Western  models.     This  party. 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  475 

1875-1876 

dubbed  by  the  French  press  the  Party  of  Young  Turkey,  now  found 
an  able  leader  in  Midhat  Pasha,  a  protege  of  Fuad  Pasha,  who  had 
made  a  splendid  reputation  as  a  reform  governor  at  Nish  and  at 
Bagdad.  The  utter  incapacity  of  the  Sultan,  his  ruinous  extrava- 
gance, and  his  subservience  to  Russian  influence  had  convinced 
all  classes  of  the  necessity  for  a  change.  Midhat  accordingly  found 
ready  allies,  not  only  among  the  liberal  young  Turks,  but  also 
among  the  conservatives,  who  shared  with  him  a  common  hatred 
of  Russia.  Such  was  Plussein  Avni,  a  stern  soldier  of  the  old 
Turkish  school,  a  man  of  great  ability  and  iron  will.  On  Alay  lo, 
1876,  the  Softas,  or  religious  students  of  Constantinople,  rose  in 
thousands  and  forced  the  Sultan  to  dismiss  the  Grand  Vizier  AIo- 
hammed  Nedim  and  the  Sheik  ul  Islam.  But  iMidhat  and  Hussein 
Avni  were  not  content  with  this  success,  for  they  had  determined 
on  the  dethronement  of  the  Sultan.  Warned  of  the  danger,  Abdul 
Aziz  prepared  to  take  refuge  on  a  Russian  war  vessel,  but  his 
suspicions  only  hastened  the  plans  of  the  conspirators,  who  ob- 
tained from  the  new  Sheik  ul  Islam  the  necessary  fetwah  for  the 
removal  of  the  Sultan.  On  the  night  of  i^Iay  29  the  Dolma 
Bagtchi  Palace  was  surrounded  by  the  troops  of  Suleiman 
Pasha,  one  of  the  conspirators,  and  Abdul  Aziz  was  seized  without 
resistance  and  carried  by  boat  to  the  Top  Kapu  Palace,  which  had 
been  selected  as  his  prison.  In  his  stead  the  conspirators  proclaimed 
Murad,  the  eldest  son  of  Abdul  Aledjid,  as  Sultan,  and  on  the  fol- 
lowing day  Murad  rode  in  brilliant  procession  to  the  great  Mosque 
of  Sophia,  where  he  received  the  homage  of  the  officials  and  the 
people. 

Abdul  Aziz  did  not  long  survive  his  dethronement.  On 
June  4  he  was  found  dead  in  his  apartments,  with  his  veins 
opened  apparently  by  a  pair  of  scissors.  No  less  than  nineteen 
physicians,  including  the  most  eminent  European  doctors  in  Con- 
stantinople, declared  their  opinion  that  the  Sultan  had  committed 
suicide.  But  the  suspicion  was  strong  that  he  had  l)cen  murdered 
by  the  orders  of  the  successful  conspirators.  His  death  did  not 
long  remain  unavenged.  On  June  15  Hassan  Beg,  a  faithful 
supporter  of  the  late  Sultan,  forced  his  way  into  the  rooms 
where  the  council  of  ministers  was  sitting  and  shot  down  Hussein 
Avni,  the  foreign  minister,  before  he  was  overpowered  by  the 
guards. 

The  new  Sultan,  ]\Iurad  V.,  had  inherited  tlie  amiable  qualities 


476  TURKEY 

1876 

of  his  father  and  also,  unfortunately,  his  weakness  of  character. 
The  events  which  had  brought  him  to  the  throne  had  made  a  deep 
impression  on  him,  and  he  now  found  himself  a  semi-prisoner  in 
the  hands  of  a  clique  whom  he  strongly  suspected  of  murdering 
his  uncle.  The  nervous  strain  seems  to  have  been  too  much  for 
him,  and  his  mind  soon  gave  way.  In  this  condition  he  was  wholly 
incapable  of  directing  affairs,  and  the  control  remained  in  the  hands 
of  Midhat  and  his  supporters. 

The  situation  of  the  empire  was  indeed  a  most  critical  one. 
The  risings  in  Bosnia  were  supplemented  by  threats  of  intervention 
on  the  part  of  Servia  and  Montenegro,  while  a  state  of  unrest  per- 
vaded all  the  European  provinces.  It  was,  however,  the  terrible 
events  which  took  place  in  Bulgaria  which  riveted  the  attention 
of  the  whole  world  and  gave  to  Europe  convincing  proof  of  the  fu- 
tility of  the  lauded  reforms.  Bulgaria  had  always  been  the  quietest 
and  most  submissive  province  of  European  Turkey.  The  Bulgar- 
ians, a  race  of  mingled  Slavic  and  Finnish  blood,  had,  before  the 
Turkish  conquest,  a  most  glorious  history.  Their  empire  had  at 
times  extended  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the  ^gean,  and  had  more 
than  once  threatened  the  extinction  of  the  Greek  state  of  Constan- 
tinople. Later,  defeated  by  the  Greeks  and  again  by  the  Servians, 
they  fell  an  easy  prey  to  the  Turkish  invaders.  For  five  centuries 
Bulgaria  remained  quiescent  under  Turkish  oppression.  But  now 
the  revival  of  national  spirit  among  the  Southern  Slavs  had  begun 
to  produce  unrest  even  in  Bulgaria.  To  make  matters  worse  the 
Porte  had  recently  introduced  a  fanatical  and  unruly  Mohammedan 
element  into  the  province.  After  the  conquest  of  the  Caucasus 
by  Russia  large  numbers  of  Circassians  had  left  their  homes  and 
sought  refuge  in  Turkey.  The  government,  in  order  to  strengthen 
the  Mohammedan  element  in  the  European  provinces,  had  settled 
thousands  of  them  in  Bulgaria,  where  their  restlessness  and  fanati- 
cism had  made  them  most  unwelcome  neighbors.  In  the  spring  of 
1876  isolated  risings  took  place  among  the  Bulgarian  villages,  which 
were  easily  suppressed.  But  these  sporadic  outbreaks  served  as  a 
pretext  for  terrible  reprisals,  and  hordes  of  Circassians  and  Turk- 
ish irregulars,  Bashi  Bazuks,  as  they  were  called,  were  let  loose 
upon  the  helpless  villages  of  southern  Bulgaria.  Toward  the  end 
of  June  reports  of  horrible  massacres  reached  Western  Europe,  but 
were  persistently  denied  both  by  the  Turkish  authorities  and  by 
the   British   ambassador.    Sir   Henry   Elliot.     It   was   due  largely 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  477 

1876 

to  the  investigations  of  two  Americans,  Mr.  MacGahan,  of  the 
London  Daily  Neivs,  and  Mr.  Schuyler,  the  American  Consul-Gen- 
eral  at  Constantinople,  who  in  July  and  August  made  their  way 
through  the  region  south  of  the  Balkans,  that  the  fearful  reports 
were  confirmed.  In  a  region  one  of  the  most  fertile  in  Southern 
Europe  they  found  nothing  but  desolation ;  large  and  prosperous 
villages  had  been  swept  from  the  map  and  in  their  stead  were 
ruins  and  heaps  of  human  skeletons.  In  the  village  of  Batak,  a 
prosperous  place  of  9000  to  10,000  inhabitants,  the  Bashi  Bazuks, 
led  by  Achmet  Aga,  had  massacred  three-fourths  of  the  population, 
men,  women,  and  children,  amid  scenes  of  unmentionable  atrocity. 
In  the  town  of  Panagurishta  alone  3000  persons  were  massacred, 
this  time  by  regular  troops  under  Hafiz  Pasha.  In  four  days  no 
less  than  sixty-five  villages  had  been  sacked  and  burned,  and  15,000 
persons  had  perished.^ 

The  news  of  the  Bulgarian  massacres  aroused  the  deepest 
horror  throughout  Western  Europe.  In  England  hundreds  of  in- 
dignation meetings  were  held,  while  Gladstone  took  up  the 
cause  of  the  Bulgarians-  in  his  famous  pamphlet,  "  The  Bulgarian 
Horrors  and  the  Eastern  Question,"  in  v.hich  he  advocated  the 
expulsion  of  the  Turks  from  Europe.  But  the  ministry  headed  by 
Disraeli  maintained  unmoved  its  attitude  of  support  to  Turkey  and 
suspicion  of  Russia.  The  Bulgarian  revelations  had.  however, 
made  it  impossible  for  Disraeli  to  assume  a  policy  of  active  support 
of  Turkey.  ]\Iuch  against  his  own  will  he  was  obliged  to  remain 
neutral  in  the  face  of  the  events  which  followed.  It  was  in  the 
Slavic  states  that  the  indignation  reached  the  highest  pitch.  In 
Russia  the  pacific  policy  of  the  emperor  held  the  general  indignation 
in  check,  but  Servia  and  Montenegro  promptly  declared  war,  and 
their  troops  crossed  the  Turkish  frontier.  The  Servian  army  was 
full  of  Russian  volunteers,  including  many  officers  who  had  re- 
signed from  the  Russian  army,  and  the  Russian  general  Tcher- 
rtaiev  was  placed  in  command.  But  despite  Russian  assistance  tlie 
Servians  were  from  the  outset  hopelessly  overmatched.  The  disor- 
ganization of  the  last  few  years  had  not  impaired  the  efficiency 
of  the  new  Turkish  army,  and  Europe  was  astonished  at  the  ease 
with  which  the  Turks  put  150,000  men  into  the  field,  with  a  reserve 

5  The  letters  of  Mr.  MacGalian  have  been  published  under  the  title  "  The 
Turkish  Atrocities  in  P.ulgaria,"  London,  1876.  The  pamphlet  also  contains  the 
preliminary  report  of  I\lr.  Schuyler. 


478  TURKEY 

1876 

of  100,000  in  Bulgaria.  The  Servians,  foiled  in  an  attempt  to  unite 
with  the  Montenegrins,  were  driven  back  across  their  frontier,  and 
after  several  minor  engagements  were  totally  defeated  in  a  bloody 
battle  at  Djunis  (October  29,  1876)  which  opened  to  the  Turks  the 
way  to  Belgrade.  The  Montenegrins  had  been  more  successful, 
but  their  victories  were  nullified  by  the  complete  overthrow  of  the 
Servians.  The  disastrous  Servian  campaign,  in  which  thousands 
of  Russians  had  fallen,  aroused  the  liveliest  interest  in  Russia,  where 
it  was  felt  that  the  national  honor  was  imperiled.  Yielding  to  an 
ultimatum  presented  by  Ignatiev,  the  Porte  was  forced  to  sign  an 
armistice  with  Servia  and  Montenegro. 

In  Constantinople  a  new  change  of  sovereigns  had  taken  place. 
Murad  V.  was  still  incapable  of  administering  affairs,  and  his  mind 
was  at  least  temporarily  deranged.  By  Mohammedan  law  no  in- 
sane sovereign  could  occupy  the  throne,  and  Midhat  Pasha  decided 
that  a  fresh  revolution  was  necessary.  On  August  31  the  Sheik 
ul  Islam  issued  the  necessary  fetwah,  and  Murad  was  declared 
deposed  in  favor  of  his  younger  brother  Abdul  Hamid,  the  present 
reigning  Sultan.  The  European  powers  had  now  become  thor- 
oughly convinced  of  the  failure  of  the  Turkish  reform  policy.  Rus- 
sia's attitude  was  growing  more  and  more  threatening  in  spite  of 
the  pacific  declarations  of  the  emperor.  On  November  13  the 
mobilization  of  six  army  corps  on  the  Rumanian  frontier  was 
ordered,  and  proposals  made  to  Austria  for  the  occupation  of 
Bosnia  and  Bulgaria.  In  a  last  effort  for  peace  a  conference  was 
proposed  by  England  and  the  ambassadors  of  the  chief  European 
powers  assembled  at  Constantinople  under  the  presidency  of  Ig- 
natiev. A  new  scheme  of  reforms  was  drawn  up  which  was  to  be 
administered  under  the  direction  of  an  international  commission. 
But  Alidhat  Pasha  had  prepared  a  new  surprise  for  the  powers. 
At  the  first  formal  meeting  of  the  conference,  December  23, 
the  thunder  of  guns  was  heard  celebrating  the  proclamation 
of  a  constitution  for  the  Ottoman  Empire.  The  constitution 
which  realized  the  utmost  hopes  of  the  Young  Turkey  Party  was 
drawn  up  by  a  commission  of  officials  and  members  of  the 
Ulema.  It  recognized  the  Sultan  as  the  hereditary  and  Inviolable 
head  of  the  state.  Islam  was  to  be  the  state  religion,  but  other 
faiths  were  to  hnve  complete  freedom  of  worship.  All  subjects 
were  to  be  called  Osmanlis  and  were  to  enjoy  equal  rights  and 
privileges.     A  parliament  of  two  houses  and  a  responsible  minis- 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  479 

1876-1877 

try  were  established.  No  taxes  were  to  be  levied  without  legisla- 
tive consent. 

The  question  instantly  arises  as  to  the  good  faith  of  the  Porte 
in  promulgating  the  constitution.  The  sincerity  of  Midhat  and  the 
Young  Turks  cannot  be  doubted,  for  they  had  demanded  a  consti- 
tution for  years  as  the  only  salvation  of  the  country.  But  its  estab- 
lishment at  this  time  was  chiefly  for  political  purposes  to  serve  as 
a  counter  stroke  to  the  demands  of  the  powers,  and  especially  as  a 
checkmate  for  Russia.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  constitution 
was  never  really  put  into  operation.  It  is  true  that  the  parliament 
actually  met  and,  considering  the  number  of  races  represented  and 
their  utter  lack  of  constitutional  ideas,  it  conducted  itself  remark- 
ably well.  But  the  Sultan  took  care  never  to  give  it  any  real  au- 
thority, and  when  after  the  war  it  attempted  to  assert  itself,  parlia- 
ment was  dissolved  never  to  reassemble.  The  announcement  of  the 
constitution  was  received  with  pardonable  incredulity  by  the  Eu- 
ropean ambassadors,  who  persisted  in  demanding  the  acceptance  of 
their  plan  of  reform.  But  it  soon  became  evident  that  Russia  alone 
was  determined  to  enforce  this  demand,  and  the  Porte  finally  re- 
jected the  protocol  of  the  powers  on  April  9,  1877.  Peace  between 
Turkey  and  Servia  had  already  been  concluded  Alarch  i,  but  the 
Ottoman  parliament  voted  to  continue  the  war  with  Alontenegro. 
On  April  24  Russia  declared  war,  and  her  armies  in  Europe 
and  Asia  were  set  in  motion  toward  the  Turkish  frontier.  The 
other  European  powers  promptly  declared  their  neutrality,  Eng- 
land with  the  reservation  that  she  would  not  intervene  "  so  long 
as  Turkish  interests  alone  were  in  question." 

The  first  care  of  Russia  was  to  secure  the  support  of  the 
Rumanians.  The  Rumanian  statesmen  at  first  labored  to  maintain 
the  neutral  position  secured  them  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris.  But 
threatened  on  both  sides  1)y  Turkey  and  Russia  they  finally  declared 
for  Russia,  and  proclaimed  their  independence  from  Turkey. 
Already  on  April  23  the  Russian  advance  guard  under  General 
Skobelev  had  crossed  the  Rumanian  frontier. 

At  the  commencement  of  the  war  the  Russians  had  two  armies 
concentrated  for  the  invasion  of  the  Ottoman  Empire.  One  at 
Kishinev  in  southern  Russia  under  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  the 
Czar's  brother,  numbered  about  250,000  men.  The  other,  in  the 
Transcaucasus  region,  numbered  120,000  men,  under  the  com- 
mand uf  the  Grand   Duke   Michael   and   tl;e  celebrated  Armenian 


480  TURKEY 

1877 

general,  Loris  Melikov.  In  addition,  the  Turks  had  to  reckon  with 
the  Rumanian  army,  50,000  strong,  commanded  by  Prince  Charles. 
To  oppose  these  forces  the  Turks  had  in  Europe  about  250,000  men, 
of  whom  only  about  160,000  were  available  for  the  defense  of  Bul- 
garia. In  Europe  the  Turks  had  two  possible  lines  of  defense,  the 
Danube  with  its  chain  of  fortresses,  Silistria,  Rustchuk,  Nicopolis, 
and  Widdin,  and  the  range  of  the  Balkan  Mountains.  They  had 
besides  the  advantage  of  commanding  the  Black  Sea  with  a  power- 
ful fleet  whicli,  if  it  accomplished  nothing  else  in  the  war,  at  least 
protected  Turkey  from  a  sea  attack  and  forced  the  Russians  to 
conduct  their  invasion  farther  inland  than  they  otherwise  w^ould 
have  done.  To  oppose  the  Russian  advance  in  Armenia,  Mukhtir 
Pasha  had  perhaps  75,000  men. 

The  Russian  troops  crossed  the  Rumanian  frontier  in  the  last 
part  of  April,  but  it  was  not  till  tw-o  months  later  that  they  were 
prepared  to  force  the  passage  of  the  Danube.  The  natural  line  of 
advance  would  have  been  through  the  Dobrudsha  region  between 
the  Danube  and  the  sea,  but  the  presence  of  the  Turkish  fleet  made 
it  necessary  to  cross  the  river  much  farther  upstream,  between 
Nicopolis  and  Rustchuk.  By  a  series  of  brilliant  exploits  the 
Danube  was  cleared  of  Turkish  ironclads,  and  on  June  27  the 
eighth  Russian  army  corps,  led  by  General  Skobelev  with  his 
Cossacks,  crossed  the  river  on  a  pontoon  bridge  near  Sistova  and 
drove  back  the  small  Turkish  force  which  opposed  them.  In  fact 
the  Turks,  whether  by  design  or  by  poor  generalship,  had  practically 
abandoned  the  defense  of  the  Danube,  though  strong  garrisons  were 
left  in  the  principal  fortresses.  Von  Moltke,  the  great  Prussian 
strategist,  once  remarked  of  sieges  of  Turkish  towns  that  the  re- 
sistance usually  began  at  the  stage  when  other  sieges  ended.  Simi- 
larly in  this  war,  as  General  Greene  points  out,^  the  Turks  began  a 
vigorous  resistance  only  when  their  first  line  of  defense  was  lost. 
This  was  perhaps  due  to  the  fact  that  they  had  at  first  no  vigorous 
leader  to  compare  with  their  great  general  of  the  Crimean  War, 
Omar  Pasha,  and  but  one  w^ho  showed  more  than  average  capacity, 
^y  Ji-ib'  3  the  whole  Russian  army  had  crossed  the  Danube  and 
was  pushing  on  through  Bulgaria  in  three  divisions.  The  left 
wing,  under  the  Czarevitch  Alexander,  marched  on  Rustchuk  and 
took  up  a  position  on  the  River  Lom,  where  it  remained  on  the  de- 

<^ "  The    Russian    Campaign    in    Turkey,    1877-78,"    by     Francis    V.    Greene, 
U.  S.  A.,  is  the  best  military  work  in  English  on  the  war. 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  481 

1877 

fensive  during  most  of  the  campaign.  The  right  wing  under  Gen- 
eral Krudener  advanced  on  Nicopolis,  while  a  flying  column  under 
General  Gurko  pushed  on  through  Bulgaria  and  occupied  Tirnova, 
the  chief  town  of  northern  Bulgaria,  which  now  became  the  Rus- 
sian headquarters.  From  Tirnova  Gurko  advanced  rapidly  south- 
ward, and  after  a  sharp  resistance  seized  the  important  Shipka  Pass 
in  the  Balkans.  Thence  advance  parties  of  Russians  descended 
into  the  plains  of  Rumelia  and  advanced  to  within  a  few  miles  of 
Adrianople. 

The  appearance  of  the  Russians  south  of  the  Balkans  created 
a  tremendous  sensation  among  the  Turks.  Panic  reigned  in  Adrian- 
ople and  in  the  towns  in  the  Maritza  Valley,  which  were  crowded 
with  Mohammedan  refugees.  In  Constantinople  the  excitement 
was  intense.  The  populace  rose  and  forced  the  Sultan  to  dismiss 
the  old  and  inactive  Seraskier  Abdul  Kerim,  and  to  appoint  the 
German  Mohammed  Ali  in  his  place.  Suleiman  Pasha  was  hastily 
recalled  from  the  Montenegrin  campaign  and  hurried  back  to 
Rumelia  with  30,000  men.  The  arrival  of  these  troops  checked  the 
Russian  advance,  and  Gurko  retired  to  the  Shipka  Pass.  The  whole 
exploit  had  been  a  most  brilliant  one,  and  the  capture  of  the  chief 
pass  in  the  Balkans  was  a  decided  victory  for  the  Russians.  Mean- 
time the  right  wing  under  General  Krudener  had  taken  Nicopolis 
on  July  16.  The  Turkish  commander  at  Widdin,  Osman  Pasha, 
who  had  with  him  40,000  of  the  best  troops  in  the  empire,  arrived 
by  forced  marches  just  too  late  to  save  the  town,  and  fell  back  to 
Plevna,  an  important  strategic  point  commanding  the  roads  to 
Sofia  and  Philippopolis.  Ignorant  of  the  arrival  of  Osman,  Krudener 
sent  General  Schilder  Schuldner  with  7000  men  to  occupy  Plevna. 
The  little  Russian  force  attacked  the  Turks,  who  had  already  begun 
to  entrench  themselves,  and  was  comjiletely  beaten,  losing  one-third 
of  its  number.  Krudener  now  advanced  \vith  his  wli(~)lc  force, 
30,000  men,  and  the  second  battle  of  Plevna  took  place.  Again  the 
Russiatis,  after  a  series  of  desperate  attacks  in  which  the  young 
General  .Skobelcv  grcativ  distinguished  himself,  were  bcitcn  back 
with  fearful  slaughter.  The  situation  of  the  Russians  was  a  critical 
one.  Thev  had  made  tlic  mistake  of  underestimating  their  op- 
ponents and,  entering  on  the  campaign  with  too  small  a  force,  they 
had  lost  heavily  with  no  immediate  hope  of  reinforcements.  For 
a  time  it  seemed  as  if  a  vigorous  offensive  on  the  part  of  Osman 
Pasha  might  drive  the  whole  Russian  army  into  the  Danube. 


% 


482  TURKEY 

1877 

In  this  emergency  the  Emperor  Alexander,  who  was  at  the 
front,  called  out  340,000  Russian  reserves  and  turned  to  the  Ruma- 
nians who,  owing  to  the  refusal  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  to 
allow  them  to  act  as  an  independent  force,  had  remained  stationary 
on  the  north  of  the  Danube.  Now  the  emperor  not  only  assured 
the  Rumanians  that  they  should  not  be  incorporated  in  the  Russian 
army,  but  appointed  Prince  Charles  to  the  command  of  the  entire 
right  wing  of  the  Russian  army.  The  Rumanian  army,  37,000 
strong,  accordingly  crossed  the  Danube  and  joined  the  Russians 
near  Plevna.  The  Russian  position  was,  however,  still  critical, 
since  reinforcements  from  Russia  were  slow  to  arrive,  and  a  good 
opportunity  was  given  the  Turks  to  take  the  offensive.  Mohammed 
AH  proposed  that  his  troops  should  unite  with  those  of  Suleiman 
Pasha  to  crush  the  Russians  in  eastern  Bulgaria,  but  Suleiman, 
jealous  of  Mohammed  as  a  foreigner,  preferred  a  frontal  attack  on 
the  Shipka  Pass,  and  his  plan  was  sustained  by  the  war  council 
at  Constantinople.  On  August  16  Suleiman  began  his  attempt 
to  recover  the  Shipka,  and  for  the  next  few  days  attack  after 
attack  was  made  on  the  little  Russian  force  which  defended  the 
pass.  After  a  desperate  resistance,  unsurpassed  for  dogged  en- 
durance, the  Russians  succeeded  in  repulsing  the  Turkish  assaults, 
and  Suleiman  was  forced  to  retreat  to  reorganize  his  shattered 
army.  In  Bulgaria  Mohammed  Ali  met  with  no  better  success  in  his 
advance  against  the  army  of  the  Czarevitch,  and  after  a  decided 
repulse  at  Cergovica  on  September  21  Mohammed  retreated  to 
Shumla  and  was  replaced  in  command  by  Suleiman  Pasha. 

The  real  interest  of  the  campaign  was  still  centered  about 
Plevna.  The  Russian  reinforcements  at  length  began  to  arrive,  and 
a  belated  advance  of  Osman  Pasha  was  repulsed  after  hard  fighting. 
The  allied  army,  100,000  strong,  advanced  for  the  third  time 
against  Plevna,  where  Osman  Pasha  had  strongly  entrenched  his 
army  of  60,000  men.  On  September  3  General  Skobelev  de- 
feated the  Turks  at  Lovtcha,  to  the  east  of  Plevna,  after  a  des- 
perate hand  to  hand  struggle  which  piled  the  Turkish  redoubts  six 
feet  deep  with  dead  and  wounded.  On  September  7  the  Russians 
opened  fire  on  Plevna  with  250  field  and  siege  guns,  and  for  four  days 
a  terrific  bombardment  was  kept  up.  On  tlie  nth  orders  were  issued 
for  a  general  attack  on  the  Turkish  lines.  The  main  assaults  were 
to  be  delivered  on  three  points,  the  Grivitza  Redoubt  to  the  north 
of  the  town,  Redoubt  Xo.  10  to  the  south,  and  two  redoubts  on  the 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  483 

1877 

Lovtcha  road  dose  to  the  town.  The  day  was  intensely  foggy,  and 
the  attack  was  not  begun  until  afternoon,  when  the  fog  had  lifted 
somewhat.  Under  cover  of  a  tremendous  cannonade  the  three 
attacking  columns  were  pushed  forward.  The  Rumanian  con- 
tingent, 25,000  strong,  attacked  the  Grivitza  Redoubt  and  after  a 
three  hours'  struggle  succeeded  in  capturing  it,  only  to  find  that  it 
was  commanded  by  other  Turkish  works  in  the  rear.  The  other 
Russian  columns  were  not  so  fortunate.  Two  furious  assaults  on 
Redoubt  No.  10  were  repulsed,  after  two  regiments  which  had 
reached  the  crest  of  the  work  had  been  completely  decimated.  But 
the  most  desperate  struggle  of  the  day  took  place  on  the  left  wing, 
where  General  Skobelev  led  his  troops  in  person  against  the  Turk- 
ish entrenchments.  Hurling  his  regiments  forward  in  successive 
waves  so  that  when  the  foremost  line  faltered  another  came  up  to 
carry  it  forward,  Skobelev  carried  the  redoubt  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  leaving  3000  dead  and  wounded  on  the  hillside.  The 
Turks,  rallying,  made  tremendous  efforts  to  recover  the  position, 
and  a  terrible  cross  fire  was  poured  in  upon  the  Russians,  who,  in 
spite  of  repeated  appeals,  received  no  reinforcements.  On  the 
following  day  the  Turks  made  five  distinct  attacks,  which  were  re- 
pulsed. For  the  sixth  time  they  advanced,  and  the  Russians, 
exhausted  by  forty-eight  hours  of  incessant  fighting,  were  driven 
out  of  the  hardly  gained  positions.  Skobelev  had  been  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight,  exposing  himself  recklessly  and  seeming  to  bear  a 
charmed  life.  A  correspondent  graphically  describes  meeting  with 
him  after  the  final  repulse.  *'  It  was  just  after  this  that  I  met 
General  Skobelev  the  first  time  that  day.  Pie  was  in  a  fearful  state 
of  excitement  and  fury.  His  uniform  was  covered  with  mud  and 
filth,  his  sword  broken,  his  cross  of  St.  George  twisted  over  his 
shoulder,  his  face  black  with  powder  and  smoke,  his  eyes  haggard 
and  bloodshot,  and  his  voice  quite  gone.  He  spoke  in  a  hoarse 
whisper,  I  never  before  saw  such  a  picture  of  battle  as  he  pre- 
sented." ^ 

The  grand  assault,  known  in  history  as  the  third  battle  of 
Plevna,  had  been  an  almost  total  failure.  The  disaster  was  perhaps 
inevitable,  for  it  was  a  frontal  attack  on  troops  among  the  best  in 
the  world  for  fighting  in  trendies,  armed  with  breech-loading 
rifles.  But  the  Russian  leaders  had  undoubtedly  l)hinderc(l  in  fail- 
ing to  give  proper  support  to  Skobelev.  This  great  battle  cost 
"  Daily  NcZl's  war  correspondence. 


484  TURKEY 

1877 

the  Russians  20,000  men  out  of  60,000  engaged,  and  the  Turks 
lost  10,000  men.  The  Russians  now  abandoned  the  idea  of  tak- 
ing Plevna  by  storm  and  settled  down  to  a  regular  investment. 
General  Todleben,  the  famous  engineer  of  Sebastopol  fame,  was 
summoned  to  conduct  operations.  For  a  time  there  was  a  lull  of 
hostilities  in  Bulgaria,  the  Russians  pushing  the  siege  of  Plevna 
and  remaining  on  the  defensive  elsewhere. 

The  war  in  Armenia  had  for  a  time  taken  a  course  remarkably 
similar  to  that  in  Bulgaria.  For  a  time  the  Russians  carried  all  be- 
fore them,  captured  the  frontier  fortresses  of  Ardahan  and  Bayezid, 
and  blockaded  Batum  and  Kars.  Then  the  Turks  began  to  recover 
spirit.  The  Russian  garrison  at  Bayezid  was  surrounded  by  a  great 
horde  of  Kurdish  cavalry  and  only  rescued  when  reduced  to  ex- 
tremities. On  June  25  Mukhtir  Pasha  totally  defeated  the  Russians 
at  Zewin  and  forced  them  to  raise  the  siege  of  Kars.  On  Au- 
gust 24  he  again  attacked  the  Russians  posted  on  the  hill  of  Kizil 
Teppe,  and  again  defeated  them  and  obliged  them  to  retreat  across 
the  border.  By  the  end  of  September  the  Russians,  heavily  rein- 
forced, renewed  the  offensive  against  Kars.  On  October  15  Mukhtir 
Pasha  was  attacked  in  front  and  rear  at  Aladja  Dagh,  and  his  army 
was  practically  destroyed,  only  one-half  escaping  in  hopeless  con- 
fusion to  Erzerum,  hotly  pursued  by  the  Russians.  On  Novem- 
ber 17  came  the  final  scene  of  the  Armenian  campaign  in  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  exploits  of  military  history — the  storming 
of  Kars.  The  fortress  of  Kars,  defended  by  twelve  great  forts 
constructed  by  Prussian  engineers  and  garrisoned  by  20,000  men, 
was  in  1877  considered  impregnable.  Situated  on  high  ground 
rising  out  of  the  plain  through  which  runs  the  Kars  River,  the  town 
is  strong  by  nature  as  well  as  by  art.  Nevertheless  the  Grand  Duke 
Michael  decided  to  attempt  a  surprise.  On  the  evening  of  the  17th 
the  Russians  advanced  silently  to  the  attack  in  six  columns.  "  A 
perfectly  clear  sky  and  a  full  moon  which  had  just  risen  gave 
promise  of  a  clear  and  calm  night.  The  temperature  was  growing 
colder  and  colder.  A  solemn  and  chill  silence  reigned  in  the  air, 
and  the  most  attentive  ear  could  not  have  distinguished  any  noise 
in  the  least  alarming.  The  dimly  seen  line  of  our  skirmishers  was 
advancing  prudently  step  by  step,  followed  by  the  troops  for  the 
assault,  who,  as  they  neared  the  line  of  attack,  formed  in  deployed 
order  in  company  column."  ^  The  attack  was  a  complete  success. 
8  Report  of  the  Grand  Duke  Michael. 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  485 

1877 

The  Turks,  surprised  at  first,  soon  rallied  and  made  a  desperate 
effort  to  regain  their  lost  positions.  But  by  daybreak  the  Russians 
were  in  full  possession  of  half  the  fortifications,  and  the  garrison 
after  a  vain  attempt  to  break  through  the  Russian  lines  was  forced 
to  surrender.  Scarcely  fifty  men  escaped  to  carry  the  news  to 
Erzerum.  The  victory  was  a  most  brilliant  one.  The  Russians 
captured  17,000  prisoners,  300  cannon,  and  vast  quantities  of  sup- 
plies, and  the  victory  had  cost  them  less  than  3000  men.  The 
capture  of  Kars  practically  closed  the  campaign  in  Armenia,  for  the 
winter  which  soon  set  in  made  operations  impossible. 

In  Bulgaria  the  Russians  under  the  direction  of  General 
Todleben  had  pushed  vigorously  the  siege  of  Plevna.  By  a  sharp 
battle  at  Gorni  Dubinck  Osman  Pasha  was  cut  off  from  his  com- 
munications w^ith  Sofia,  and  the  Turkish  army  was  completely  sur- 
rounded. The  fall  of  the  stronghold  was  now  merely  a  question  of 
time.  Supplies  began  to  run  short  in  Plevna,  and  on  December  10 
Osman  Pasha  made  a  desperate  eft'ort  to  break  through  the  Russian 
lines.  Withdrawing  his  troops  from  the  redoubts  and  distributing 
among  them  the  remaining  regiments,  he  made  a  fierce  attack  on 
the  Russian  works  to  the  west  of  the  town  and  carried  the  first  lines 
of  entrenchments.  But  the  Russians  soon  rallied,  drove  back  the 
Turks,  and  occupied  the  redoubts  abandoned  by  them.  The  situa- 
tion of  the  Turkish  troops  was  a  hopeless  one,  and  after  thousands 
had  fallen  Osman  Pasha  surrendered  with  his  whole  army. 

The  capture  of  Plevna  might  well  have  ended  the  year's  cam- 
paign, for  winter  had  set  in  and  snow  had  begun  to  fall  in  the 
Balkans.  But  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  was  determined  to  cross 
the  mountains  and  strike  the  Turks  before  they  could  recover.  Ac- 
cordingly the  Russians  advanced  in  three  great  columns — Gurko  on 
Sofia,  Skobelev  and  Radetzky  on  the  Shipka  Pass.  Servia  now  de- 
clared war  on  Turkey,  and  the  Servian  army  ca])tured  Nish  and 
advanced  on  the  road  toward  Salonika.  The  Turkish  commander, 
Suleiman  Pasha,  had  fallen  into  the  fatal  error  of  scattering  his 
troops  along  the  line  of  the  Balkans  instead  of  concentrating  them, 
and  thus  made  the  Russian  task  much  easier.  On  December  23 
Gurko  commenced  the  crossing  of  the  Balkans.  The  snow  lay  deep 
on  the  mountains  and  the  cannon  had  to  be  dragged  up  the  slopes 
by  hand,  for  horses  were  useless.  Nevertheless  the  Russians  per- 
severed, and  on  the  30tli  passed  the  summit  of  the  mountains  and 
descended  to  the  plain  of  Sofia,  which  was  promptly  evacuated  by 


486  TURKEY 

1877-1878 

the  Turks.  Thence  Gurko  advanced  toward  PhiHppopolis,  where 
he  overtook  and  totally  routed  the  retreating  army  of  Suleiman. 
The  remnant  of  the  Turkish  force  escaped  in  scattered  bands 
through  the  Rhodope  Mountains  to  the  shores  of  the  yEgean  Sea. 

In  the  meantime  Skobelev  and  Radetzky  had  crossed  the 
Balkans  on  either  side  of  the  Shipka  Pass,  where  the  snow  lay  ten 
feet  deep,  and  converged  on  the  Turkish  force  at  the  mouth  of  the 
pass.  On  January  8  the  Turks  were  completely  surrounded,  and 
after  a  fierce  conflict  the  whole  force,  38,000  strong,  laid  down  their 
arms. 

The  capture  of  the  Shipka  army  and  the  destruction  of 
Suleiman's  force  at  PhiHppopolis  completely  destroyed  the  Turkish 
resistance.  Adrianople,  the  second  city  of  the  empire,  fell  without 
a  blow  into  Russian  hands,  and  the  fragments  of  the  Ottoman 
armies  retreated  to  the  lines  of  Bujuk  Tchekmedje,  the  last  defenses 
of  Constantinople,  which  had  been  pronounced  impregnable.  The 
Turkish  Government  now  abandoned  all  hope  of  outside  aid  and 
sued  for  peace.  On  January  31  an  armistice  was  signed  which  pro- 
vided for  the  surrender  of  the  Danubian  fortresses  still  held  by  the 
Turks  and  the  evacuation  of  the  lines  of  Bujuk  Tchekmedje. 

The  events  of  January  had  greatly  disturbed  the  English  Gov- 
ernment, for  the  total  collapse  of  Turkey  seemed  inevitable.  Under 
pretext  of  protecting  the  Christians  in  Constantinople  the  British 
fleet  in  the  yEgean  passed  the  Dardanelles  and  proceeded  toward 
Constantinople.  Hearing  this,  the  Emperor  Alexander  authorized 
the  Grand  Duke  Michael  to  enter  Constantinople  under  the  same 
pretext  of  preserving  order.  The  Grand  Duke,  however,  contented 
himself  with  occupying  the  village  of  San  Stefano,  six  miles  from 
the  capital.  The  situation  was  for  a  time  a  most  critical  one.  The 
British  fleet  and  the  Russian  army  lay  prepared  for  instant  conflict 
within  sight  of  each  other,  and  the  occupation  of  Constantinople  by 
either  party  would  have  been  the  signal  for  war.  The  Russian  and 
Turkish  peace  commissioners  met  at  San  Stefano  on  February  24, 
and  on  March  3  the  treaty  of  peace  was  signed.  The  terms  of  peace 
show  the  state  of  utter  despair  to  which  the  Turks  were  reduced. 
By  the  treaty  the  Porte  recognized  the  independence  of  Rumania, 
Servia,  and  Montenegro,  and  made  considerable  cessions  of  terri- 
tory to  the  last  two.  Bulgaria  was  constituted  into  a  great  autono- 
mous princi])ality  subject  to  the  bare  suzerainty  of  the  Porte.  Its 
boundaries  were  ilxed  so  that  it  strctclied  from  the  Black  Sea  to  the 


EFFORTS     AT    REFORM  487 

1878 

JEgezn  and  to  the  borders  of  Albania,  including  the  provinces  of 
Bulgaria,  East  Rumelia,  and  Macedonia,  and  cutting  the  remaining 
Turkish  possessions  in  halves.  The  Prince  of  Bulgaria  was  to  be 
freely  chosen  by  the  people  with  the  assent  of  the  powers.  The 
administration  was  to  be  organized  by  a  Russian  commissioner,  and 
50,000  Russians  were  to  garrison  the  country  for  two  years.  Re- 
forms approved  by  Russia  were  to  be  introduced  into  the  remaining 
Turkish  provinces.  Finally  Turkey  ceded  to  Russia  the  Dobrudsha 
in  Europe  and  the  districts  of  Kars,  Batum,  and  Bayezid  in  Asia, 
besides  agreeing  to  pay  an  indemnity  of  three  hundred  millions  of 
rubles.  The  publication  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano  created 
great  excitement  and  consternation  in  England.  Lord  Salisbury 
declared  that  the  treaty  threatened  the  peace  and  interests  of 
Europe,  and  Disraeli  openly  prepared  for  war.  Parliament  voted 
an  emergency  appropriation  of  six  millions,  the  reserves  were 
summoned  to  be  in  readiness,  and  as  a  display  of  the  resources 
of  the  empire,  12,000  Indian  troops  were  transported  to  Malta. 
The  Russian  ambassador  to  England,  Count  Shuvalov,  now  came 
forward  as  peacemaker,  and  having  ascertained  the  modifications 
which  England  demanded,  journeyed  to  St.  Petersburg  and  per- 
suaded the  emperor  to  agree  to  a  general  conference  of  the  powers 
for  a  revision  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano. 

On  June  13,  1878,  a  general  congress  of  the  European  powers 
assembled  at  Berlin  under  the  presidency  of  Prince  Bismarck,  then 
the  dominant  political  figure  in  Europe.  England  was  represented 
by  Disraeli,  now  Lord  Bcaconsfield,  and  by  Lord  Salisbury;  Russia 
by  the  veteran  Prince  Gorchakov  and  by  Count  Sluivalov ;  Austria 
by  Count  Andrassy,  France  by  ]\I.  W^addington,  Turkey  by  ]\Io- 
hammed  Ali  Pasha  and  Kara  Theodori  Beg.  Russia  had  con- 
sented to  the  congress  out  of  a  desire  not  to  risk  the  great  results 
already  gained,  and  was  dclermined  to  concede  as  little  as  possible. 
She  had  hoped  for  the  support  of  Germany  as  a  return  for  the 
friendly  offices  of  Russia  during  the  Franco-Prussian  War.  But 
Bismarck's  attitude  on  the  Eastern  question  was  tersely  summed  up 
in  his  famous  phrase  that  the  whole  question  was  not  worth  to  him 
the  bones  of  a  Pomeranian  grenadier,  and  he  declined  absolutely  to 
take  sides  in  the  matter.  \\'ith  Germany  neutral  and  Austria  and 
England  0]KMily  luistilc,  the  Russian  commissioners  saw  themselves 
forced  to  concessions,  and,  througli  the  act  of  Tiismarck.  the  con- 
gress, which  more  than  once  seemed  on    the  verge    of    disruption 


488  TURKEY 

1878 

through  Beaconsfield  or  Gorchakov,  was  finally  able  to  complete  its 
labors. 

The  Treaty  of  Berlin,  signed  July  13,  1878,  reduced  Bulgaria 
as  an  autonomous  principality  to  the  region  north  of  the  Balkans. 
Macedonia  was  restored  to  the  Porte,  while  the  region  between  the 
Balkans  and  the  Rhodope  Mountains  was  erected  into  the  province 
of  East  Rumelia,  with  an  autonomous  administration,  but  occupied 
by  Turkish  troops.  The  powers  of  the  Russian  commissioner  in 
Bulgaria  were  reduced.  Bosnia  and  Herzegovina  were  handed  over 
to  Austria,  to  be  occupied  and  administered  by  her.  The  cessions  to 
Servia  and  Montenegro  were  reduced.  Bayezid  was  restored  to 
Turkey;  the  Dobrudsha  was  handed  over  to  Rumania,  which  in 
turn  was  forced  to  give  up  the  much  more  desirable  Bessarabia  to 
Russia;  the  Sultan  was  advised  to  cede  certain  disputed  territories 
to  Greece.  Otherwise  the  provisions  of  the  San  Stefano  treaty  were 
confirmed.  At  the  same  time  England,  still  suspicious  of  Russian 
designs  in  Asia,  signed  a  secret  agreement  with  Turkey  by  which 
in  return  for  the  right  to  occupy  Cyprus,  England  promised  to 
guarantee  the  integrity  of  Asia  Minor,  and  became  responsible  for 
reforms  in  that  region. 

Lord  Beaconsfield  returned  to  London,  bringing,  as  he  said, 
peace  with  honor.  The  reduction  of  Bulgaria  had,  according  to  the 
English  view,  obviated  in  part  the  menace  of  Russian  supremacy  in 
the  Balkans  and  the  destruction  of  Turkey  as  a  European  power.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  time  has  shown  the  fallacy  of  the  English  view. 
Bulgaria  has  never  been  so  subsen'ient  to  Russia  as  was  expected. 
The  attempt  to  preserve  the  Balkans  as  a  frontier  for  Turkey  soon 
proved  a  failure.  The  recession  of  Macedonia  to  the  Porte  and  the 
proposed  English  protectorate  in  Asia  ]\Iinor  have  both  proved 
sources  of  countless  misery.  Russia  has  regained  her  influence  at 
Constantinople,  and  the  prestige  of  England  has  been  reduced  to  a 
shadow.  In  the  working  out  of  the  conditions  established  at  Berlin 
can  be  traced  the  history  of  Turkey  since  1878. 


Chapter    XXVIl 

ABDUL    HAMID   AND   THE    EMPIRE   TO-DAY 

1878-1910 

IN  the  Sultan  Abdul  Plamid  II.,  whose  reign  had  begun  so 
disastrously  for  the  empire,  Turkey  found  again  an  able 
sovereign  such  as  it  had  not  seen  since  the  days  of  Mohammed 
11.  Abdul  Hamid  was  the  second  son  of  Sultan  Abdul  Medjid  by  a 
Kurdish  mother.  Little  was  known  of  the  new  sovereign  before  his 
accession.  Quiet  and  retiring,  with  a  taste  for  horticulture  and  with 
little  apparent  interest  in  affairs  of  state,  he  was  known  to  close 
observers  to  incline  in  his  views  toward  the  conservative  party,  and 
to  have  little  faith  in  the  reform  policy  dominant  at  his  accession. 
The  time  has  come  for  a  fair  estimate  of  his  character,  and  his 
people  have  shown  what  they  think  of  him,  by  forcing  him  to 
abdicate  his  throne  to  another.  On  the  one  hand  he  has  been 
praised  as  a  clear-headed,  far-sighted  statesman,  with  an  un- 
bounded capacity  for  hard  work  and  a  strong  interest  in  what  he 
holds  to  be  the  true  welfare  of  his  subjects.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  has  been  denounced  in  unmeasured  terms  as  a  loathsome,  cow- 
ardly tyrant,  with  his  hands  dipped  in  the  blood  of  his  subjects, 
lacking  in  all  moral  sense  and  working  with  a  sort  of  low  cunning 
merely  to  maintain  himself  on  the  throne  regardless  of  the  impend- 
ing ruin  of  his  empire.  From  the  testimony  of  all  who  came  in  con- 
tact with  him,  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  appeared  reserved,  polite,  al- 
ways affable,  with  a  lively  intellect  and  a  certain  charm  of  person- 
ality which  fascinated  ever3-one  who  approached  him.  Rather  timid 
by  nature,  he  is  a  man  of  extreme  tenacity  of  purpose  and  de- 
termination of  will.  Ilis  piety  is  extreme,  and  his  private  life 
severe  almost  to  the  point  of  austerity.  Such  are  the  outward 
characteristics  of  the  man  who  once  was  the  dominant  figure  in  the 
Eastern  QuestifMi,  whose  will  alone  directed  the  destinies  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire. 

In  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  the  Sultan  had  been  compelled  to  regis- 
ter the  usual  promises  of  reforms.  But  the  disasters  of  the  last  few 
years  had  been  amply  sufficient  to  prejudice  him  against  a  liberal 

4.H!) 


490  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

policy.  He  had  seen  the  reform  movement  displace  the  Sultan's 
authority  in  favor  of  a  ministerial  oligarchy  which  set  up  and  de- 
posed sovereigns  at  will,  which  had  introduced  a  constitution  to 
still  further  limit  the  powers  of  the  Sultan,  and  had  finally  involved 
the  empire  in  a  war  which  had  brought  it  to  the  verge  of  destruction. 
Warned  by  the  fate  of  his  predecessors,  Abdul  Hamid  was  from  the 
outset  resolved  to  rule  alone.  In  a  few  years  the  reform  movement, 
■which  l^ad  never  been  supported  by  more  than  a  very  small  minority 
among-  tlie  people,  was  utterly  overthrown.  Midhat  Pasha  fell  from 
power  during  the  war  and  was  exiled  to  Italy.  In  1880  he  was 
allowed  to  return  to  Constantinople,  where  he  was  soon  charged 
with  the  murder  of  Sultan  Abdul  Aziz.  Convicted  after  a  farcical 
trial,  Midhat  was  condemned  to  exile  in  Yemen,  the  Arabian 
Siberia,  where  he  is  supposed  to  have  been  put  to  death  ( 1882).  His 
followers  of  the  Young  Turkey  Party  did  not  long  survive  Midhat's 
fall.  Some  were  executed  or  sent  into  exile,  others  recanted  and 
became  zealous  servants  of  the  Sultan,  a  few  fled  the  country  and 
escaped  to  Western  Europe. 

The  reformers  thus  disposed  of,  Abdul  Hamid  now  devoted 
himself  to  the  task  of  consolidating  his  power.  The  reformers  had 
tried  to  revive  the  state  by  remodeling  it  on  Western  ideals  and  by 
trying  to  conciliate  the  Christian  population.  Abdul  Hamid  pre- 
ferred to  rely  on  ideals  more  akin  to  the  nature  of  the  Turks,  and 
Avithout  further  attempts  to  win  the  support  of  his  Christian  sub- 
jects, he  sought  to  strengthen  t1ie  empire  on  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  Mohammedan  supremacy  and  the  revival  of  the  faith. 
With  a  deep  religious  sense  of  his  position  as  head  of  Islam,  he 
made  his  title  of  Caliph,  the  "  Commander  of  the  Faithful,"  the 
central  point  of  a  propaganda  for  the  revival  of  the  IMohammedan 
faith,  not  only  in  his  own  empire,  but  in  all  the  ^Mussulman  coun- 
tries of  the  world.  To  a  certain  extent  this  policy  has  met  with 
success.  In  Persia,  where  the  Shiite  doctrines  prevail,  and  in 
Morocco,  whose  Sultan  has  himself  pretensions  to  the  headship  of 
Islam,  it  has  made  little  or  no  progress.  The  Arabs,  too,  the  first 
possessors  of  the  faith,  are  slow  to  recognize  the  supremacy  of  its 
latest  adherents,  the  Turks,  and  to  acknowledge  that  the  Caliphate 
can  be  held  by  any  but  a  member  of  their  own  race.  But  there  can 
be  no  (Itnibt  tliat  the  influence  of  the  Sultan  has  increased  in  many 
parts  (jf  the  Mohammedan  world,  notably  in  India,  Afghanistan, 
and    some   parts    of    Africa.      Another    cardinal    point   of    Abdul 


T  H  E    E  ^1  P  I  R  E    T  0  -  D  A  Y  491 

1878-1910 

Hamid's  policy  was  the  restoration  of  the  personal  rule  of  the 
Sultan.  He  endeavored  to  oversee  and  to  direct  all  matters  of 
government  great  and  small,  and  in  pursuance  of  this  policy  the 
Sultan  became  much  the  hardest  worker  in  his  empire.  But  the 
concentration  of  all  administration  in  one  man's  hands  has  to  a 
great  extent  proved  unfortunate.  The  corruption  of  the  officials, 
which  had  increased  rapidly  during  the  reign  of  Abdul  Aziz,  the 
prostration  of  the  finances,  and  the  total  disorganization  of  the 
administrative  forces  proved  too  great  an  evil  for  one  man  to 
remedy.  The  lack  of  systematic  methods  and  the  absence  of  a 
trained  bureaucracy  to  attend  to  minor  matters  of  detail  threw 
an  enormous  burden  of  work  upon  the  hands  of  the  Sultan  and 
his  ministers,  so  that  in  the  consideration  of  a  multitude  of  trivial 
questions  great  and  important  matters  were  frequently  lost  sight 
of.  The  position  of  the  sovereign,  too,  shut  up  in  his  Yildiz  Palace, 
a  voluntary  prisoner,  seeing  and  hearing  only  through  spies  and 
favorites  who  are  often  corrupt  or  incapable,  proved  another 
obstacle  to  a  successful  personal  government.  Yet  it  was  precisely 
on  these  favorites  that  Abdul  Hamid  relied  rather  than  on  his 
public  ministers,  who  never  had  sufficient  power  of  action.  Thus 
the  disorganization  of  the  empire  increased,  the  peasantry  were 
crushed  beneath  a  burden  of  taxes  arbitrarily  levied  and  corruptly 
collected,  agriculture  in  many  provinces  declined,  bridges  and 
roads  fell  into  decay,  harbors  were  allowed  to  fill  up  with  sand, 
while  whole  tracts  of  fertile  land  were  permitted  to  relapse  into 
marshes  or  wilderness.  The  fatalistic  spirit  and  lack  of  enterprise 
among  the  Mohammedan  population  were  most  disastrous  to  any 
efi'ort  for  improvement,  while  on  the  other  hand  the  spirit  of 
dogged  endurance  and  the  wonderful  recu])erative  power  of  the 
Ottoman  people  stood  in  the  way  of  utter  dissolution.  The  finances 
of  the  empire  showed  less  signs  of  decay.  Foreign  management 
of  certain  revenues  in  the  interest  of  the  Turkish  bondholders 
greatly  added  to  the  security  of  payment  of  interest  on  the  Turkish 
debt.  Yet  in  spite  of  the  econ(-imy  of  the  Sultan  the  prevalent 
official  corruption,  as  well  as  a  pernicious  system  of  tax  collecting, 
made  any  great  improvement  iu  the  financial  standing  of  the 
empire  a  matter  of  great  difficulty.  To  remedy  all  this  is  the 
work  of  the  new  party. 

The  execution  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  soon  met  with  obstacles 
in    Turkey.      The    warlike    ^lohammedan    })opulation    of    Bosnia 


492  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

strongly  resented  the  transfer  of  that  province  to  Austria  and  rose 
in  revolt.  The  Austrian  Government  was  obliged  to  send  100,000 
troops  into  the  province  before  order  could  be  restored.  The  prin- 
cipality of  Montenegro  had  been  almost  doubled  in  size  by  the 
cession  of  territory  in  Albania.  The  Albanians,  for  centuries  in 
constant  feud  with  the  Montenegrins,  refused  at  first  to  yield  to  the 
annexation,  and  the  Albanian  League  was  formed  to  preserve  the 
national  integrity.  For  a  time  the  situation  was  serious,  and 
European  warships  assembled  off  the  Albanian  coast  at  Dulcigno. 
Finally  the  Porte,  much  against  its  will,  was  obliged  on  the  demand 
of  the  powers  to  send  troops  to  Albania  and  enforce  a  cession  differ- 
ing somewhat  from  the  original  one.  A  still  more  serious  difficulty 
arose  with  Greece.  One  article  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  had  recom- 
mended that  the  Porte  cede  to  Greece  Thessaly  and  a  part  of 
Epirus.  But  negotiations  between  Greece  and  Turkey  were  fruit- 
less, and  both  sides  prepared  for  war.  A  long  series  of  diplomatic 
negotiations  followed.  England,  hitherto  strongly  pro-Turkish, 
now  under  the  liberal  ministry  of  Gladstone  became  favorable 
to  Greece,  while  Austria  inclined  in  favor  of  Turkey.  A  compromise 
was  finally  arranged,  July  2,  1881,  by  which  the  Porte  ceded  to 
Greece  Thessaly  and  a  few  districts  in  Epirus. 

In  another  part  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  the  conditions  estab- 
lished at  Berlin  were  developing  along  wholly  unexpected  lines. 
The  new  principality  of  Bulgaria  ^  would,  it  was  commonly  sup- 
posed, be  practically  a  Russian  protectorate.  Russian  troops  occu- 
pied the  country  for  a  time,  and  a  Russian  commissioner  had  charge 
of  the  organization  of  the  new  state.  The  chief  posts  in  the  new 
government  were  held  by  Russians ;  the  troops  were  commanded  by 
officers  of  the  imperi-al  army,  and  finally  the  Bulgarians  chose  for 
their  prince  a  man  wholly  acceptable  to  the  Emperor  Alexander  II., 
his  nephew,  Prince  Alexander  of  Battenburg.  But  the  arbitrary 
conduct  and  domineering"  attitude  of  the  Russian  officials  soon 
cooled  the  fervor  of  the  Bulgarians  for  their  deliverers.  The  Bul- 
garians, a  nation  of  free  peasants  who  under  Turkish  rule  had  been 
allowed  a  large  measure  of  democratic  government  in  their  local 
affairs,  had  little  sympathy  for  autocratic  methods  and  an  anti- 
Russian  party  soon  sprang  up.  Again  the  Russians  made  the  mis- 
take of  first  siding  with  the  conservative  party,  and  then,  when 

1  For  the  history  of  Bulgaria  since  1878  see  William  Appleton  s  interesting 
work,  "  Russia,  Turkey,  and  Bulgaria." 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  493 

1878-1910 

in  the  minority,  of  attempting  to  shift  their  support  to  the  Liberals. 
The  only  result  of  this  maneuver  was  the  loss  of  support  from  both 
sides.  Prince  Alexander  was  at  first  wholly  submissive  to  Russian 
influence,  and  soon  came  into  conflict  with  the  majority  of  his  sub- 
jects. Failing  by  constitutional  methods  to  get  a  ministry  which 
should  be  under  Russian  influence,  he  in  1881  suspended  the  con- 
stitution and  put  the  country  in  a  state  of  siege.  The  only  result 
was  to  make  the  Russians  more  unpopular  among  the  mass  of  the 
people.  Prince  Alexander  began  to  tire  of  his  false  position,  and 
saw  himself  practically  displaced  by  his  Russian  ministers,  who 
acted  solely  under  orders  from  St.  Petersburg.  In  1884  he  passed 
over  into  the  ranks  of  the  national  party  and  sought  the  support  of 
France  and  England.  A  new  event  now  completed  for  the  moment 
the  destruction  of  Russian  influence. 

The  aspirations  of  the  Bulgarian  people  had  been  only  partially 
satisfied  by  the  Treaty  of  Berlin.  The  great  Bulgarian  state  created 
at  San  Stefano  had  been  dismembered  at  Berlin,  Macedonia  had 
been  wholly  restored  to  the  authority  of  the  Sultan,  and  Eastern 
Rumelia  was  granted  merely  an  autonomous  government  with  a 
Turkish  governor  and  garrison.  In  fact,  however,  no  Turkish 
soldier  had  entered  the  province,  for  both  Bulgaria  and  Russia  had 
violently  objected  to  their  presence,  and  the  Porte  had  yielded  to  the 
representations  of  those  powers.  Free  from  the  presence  of  Turkish 
troops,  the  agitation  for  a  union  with  Bulgaria  continued  unchecked 
in  Eastern  Rumelia,  and  was  for  a  time  encouraged  by  Russian 
agents.  In  1885,  with  the  decline  of  their  influence  in  Bulgaria,  the 
attitude  of  the  Russians  changed,  but  too  late  to  prevent  a  rising. 
In  September,  1885,  a  bloodless  revolution  swept  the  province,  the 
Turkish  governor  was  conducted  to  the  frontier,  and  the  union  of 
East  Rumelia  with  Bulgaria  was  proclaimed.  Prince  Alexander 
instantly  hastened  to  Philippopolis  and  there  assumed  the  title  of 
prince  of  the  new  state.  The  surprise  of  Europe  was  complete. 
Russia  especially  manifested  her  astonishment  and  chagrin.  The 
loss  of  her  influence  in  Bulgaria  had  completely  changed  her  policy, 
and  Alexander  III.,  in  order  to  express  his  disapproval,  recalled  the 
Russian  officers  in  the  Bulgarian  army.  At  this  crisis  Bulgaria 
found  an  unexpected  ally  in  England.  The  British  Government  had 
opposed  the  establishment  of  a  strong  Bulgarian  state,  fearing  that 
it  would  become  a  mere  Russian  dependency.  But  now,  with  the 
removal  ot  Russian  influence,  the  situation  was  entirely  different, 


494  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

and  the  erection  of  a  strong  Bulgarian  state  seemed  to  England  no 
longer  a  menace  of  Russian  preponderance  in  the  Balkans,  but  a 
positive  check  to  it. 

Turkey,  of  course,  protested  against  the  action  of  Bulgaria. 
But  various  influences  kept  her  from  hostilities.  In  East  Rumelia 
she  had  lost  a  province  which  was  hers  only  nominally,  whose  reve- 
nues and  soldiers  added  nothing  to  the  strength  of  the  empire.  The 
Turks  could  doubtless  have  easily  dealt  with  Bulgaria.  But  fear  of 
new  complications,  the  renewed  menacing  attitude  of  Greece,  and 
the  new  policy  of  England  inclined  the  Porte  to  peace,  and  accord- 
ingly it  contented  itself  with  a  formal  protest  to  the  powers. 

Another  Balkan  state  took  the  matter  more  seriously.  Servia 
had  long  aspired  to  the  chief  position  among  the  Balkan  states,  and 
saw  in  the  great  strengthening  of  Bulgaria  the  destruction  of  all  her 
hopes.  Moreover  the  rivalry  between  Servia  and  Bulgaria  for 
supremacy  in  Macedonia  had  already  begun.  Accordingly  Servia 
broke  the  traditional  bonds  which  had  so  long  united  the  Christian 
peoples  of  the  Balkans  against  their  common  enemy,  and  took  upon 
herself  the  defense  of  Turkish  integrity.  Assured  of  the  sympathy 
of  Austria,  King  Milan  declared  war,  and  the  Servian  troops  imme- 
diately entered  Bulgaria,  November  14,  1885.  The  Servians,  with 
forces  superior  to  those  of  Bulgaria,  had  hoped  for  an  easy  victory, 
and  did  at  first  win  some  slight  successes.  But  Prince  Alexander, 
hastening  from  Philippopolis  with  his  best  troops,  totally  defeated 
the  invaders  in  the  bloody  three  days'  battle  of  Slivinitza  (Novem- 
ber 17-19,  1885),  and  triumphantly  pursued  them  into  Servia. 
Checked  by  the  intervention  of  Austria,  he  was-  obliged  to  conclude 
an  armistice  with  his  defeated  enemies-,  which  was  turned  into  a 
treaty  of  peace  February  19,  1886,  by  which  the  conditions  pre- 
ceding the  war  were  restored.  The  defeat  of  the  Servians  confirmed 
the  union  of  Bulgaria  and  Rumelia.  On  June  14,  1886,  Prince 
Alexander  formally  proclaimed  the  indissoluble  union  of  the  two 
provinces,  and  the  powers  and  Turkey  acquiesced  by  their  inaction 
in  this  first  breach  of  the  Treaty  of  Berlin. 

However,  Russia  was  not  content  to  accept  the  loss  of  its  semi- 
protectorate  without  a  struggle.  The  anger  of  the  government  of 
St.  Petersburg  was  particularly  directed  against  the  Prince  Alex- 
ander, whose  desertion,  of  the  Russian  cause  was  considered  to  be 
little  short  of  treason.  On  August  21,  1886,  with  the  probable 
connivance  of  Russian  agents,  a  party  of  Russophile  officers  in  the 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  495 

1878-1910 

army  seized  the  prince  and  abducted  him  first  to  Russian,  then  to 
Austrian,  territory,  and  issued  a  proclamation  assuring  their  coun- 
trymen of  Russian  protection.  Prince  Alexander  had  not  been 
popular  among  his  subjects,  but  this  coup  d'etat  was  received  with 
the  greatest  indignation.  A  counter  revolution  soon  followed, 
Alexander  was  recalled,  and  reentered  Sofia  amid  the  acclamations 
of  the  people.  But  Alexander  realized  too  well  the  hopelessness  of 
maintaining  the  unequal  struggle  with  a  power  which  seemed  to  be 
seeking  any  pretext  to  put  an  end  to  Bulgarian  independence.  He 
placed  his  fate  in  the  hands  of  the  Russian  emperor,  who  practically 
demanded  his  withdrawal.  The  prince  yielded  to  the  storm,  abdi- 
cated his  crown,  and  withdrew  from  Bulgaria,  leaving  the  gov- 
ernment in  the  hands  of  a  ministry  headed  by  Stambulov,  an 
avowed  enemy  of  Russia.  The  resistance  of  the  Bulgarians  con- 
tinued. In  spite  of  the  menaces  of  the  Russian  agent.  General 
Kaulbars,  who  even  attempted  to  raise  an  insurrection  against  the 
provisional  government,  the  new  elections  resulted  in  an  anti- 
Russian  majority  in  the  Sobranje  or  assembly.  Kaulbars,  after  de- 
claring that  he  considered  the  election  null  and  void,  left  the  country, 
taking  with  him  all  the  Russian  officials.  Without  waiting  for  the 
assent  of  the  powers,  as  laid  down  in  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  the 
Bulgarians  proceeded  to  elect  as  prince  July  7,  1887,  Prince  Ferdi- 
nand of  Saxe-Coburg,  who  immediately  accepted  and  hastened  to 
Sofia.  None  of  the  powers  could  officially  condone  this  violation 
of  the  Berlin  treaty,  but  the  election  of  Prince  Ferdinand  was  re- 
ceived with  open  sympathy  in  England,  Italy,  and  Austria,  and  with 
secret  support  in  Germany.  Against  this  unanimous  attitude  of  the 
powers,  Russia  could  do  nothing  and  had  to  content  herself  with 
breaking  off  all  diplomatic  relations  with  Bulgaria. 

The  history  of  Bulgaria  since  1887  may  be  summed  up  in  a 
few  words.  The  position  of  Prince  Ferdinand  was  for  years  a  most 
uncertain  one,  for  official  recognition  was  refused  him  by  all  the 
powers.  The  dominant  force  in  Bulgaria  was  the  able  Stam- 
bulov, anti-Russian  in  policy,  who  ruled  the  country  with  great 
ability  and  no  little  severity.  But  the  Bulgarian  people  had  not 
forgotten  that  they  owed  their  independence  to  Russia,  and  Prince 
Ferdinand,  an  able  politician,  always  sought  some  means  of  recon- 
ciliation with  the  great  northern  power.  In  1894  Stambulov  was 
assassinated.  In  the  next  year  the  death  of  Emperor  Alexander 
III.  and  the  accession  of  his  son  Nicholas  II.  offered  a  favorable 


496  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

chance  for  reconciliation.  Ferdinand,  knowing  that  all  Russia  was 
displeased  at  seeing  a  Catholic  prince  on  the  throne  of  Bulgaria, 
had  his  son  Boris  baptized  into  the  Orthodox  Church,  and  the  em- 
peror consented  to  act  as  godfather.  A  complete  reconciliation  fol- 
lowed; Ferdinand  was  officially  recognized  by  the  government  of 
St.  Petersburg,  followed  by  the  other  powers,  and  Bulgaria  is 
to-day  to  a  certain  extent  again  under  Russian  influence,  not  as 
vassal  to  suzerain,  but  as  protege  to  protector. 

While  the  Balkan  states  were  strengthening  themselves  at  the 
expense  of  Turkey,  European  intervention  had  in  another  great 
province  reduced  the  Sultan's  authority  to  the  barest  nominal 
suzerainty.  The  semi-independent  state  of  Egypt  had,  during  the 
years  when  the  Suez  Canal  was  being  constructed,  been  enjoying  a 
period  of  great  prosperity.  The  cotton  industry  especially,  during 
the  American  Civil  War,  had  been  enormously  profitable.  But  re- 
newed American  competition  after  the  war  had  been  disastrous  for 
Egypt,  and  the  unbounded  extravagance  of  the  Viceroy  Ismail 
Pasha  completed  the  disorder  in  the  finances.  Ismail  squandered 
enormous  sums  in  building  palaces,  maintaining  a  luxurious  court, 
and  organizing  a  fairly  efficient  army.  But  he  soon  fell  into  diffi- 
culties and  borrowed  right  and  left  on  the  most  exorbitant  terms. 
In  1875  he  sold  his  shares  in  the  Suez  Canal,  176,000  out  of  a  total 
400,000,  which  by  an  excellent  stroke  of  policy  were  taken  by  the 
English  Government  for  four  millions  sterling.  The  Egyptian  debt 
had  now  risen  by  leaps  and  bounds  to  over  five  hundred  millions  of 
dollars,  and  the  powers  decided  it  was  high  time  to  interfere.  Ac- 
cordingly England  and  France,  representing  the  chief  creditors, 
appointed  commissioners  to  advise  the  khedive,  and  when  he  tired 
of  them  and  tried  to  dismiss  them,  the  two  powers  obtained  a 
firman  from  the  Sultan  deposing  Ismail  in  favor  of  his  son  Tewfik. 
This  foreign  intervention  was  bitterly  resented  by  the  Egyptians, 
and  especially  by  the  army,  which  soon  forced  Tewfik  to  dismiss  his 
foreign  advisers,  and  to  make  their  leader,  Arabi  Pasha,  minister 
of  war.  The  English  Government  now  proposed  to  France  a  joint 
intervention  in  Egypt.  But  the  French  ministry,  a  weak  one  on  the 
verge  of  collapse,  made  the  fatal  mistake  of  declining  to  join  the 
English,  and  thus  threw  away  the  dominant  position  which  France 
had  held  in  Egypt  since  the  days  of  Napoleon.  The  English  fleet 
alone  bombarded  Alexandria  (July  11,  1882),  and,  when  a 
massacre  of  the  Christians  followed,  landed  troops    at    the    Suez 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  497 

18r8-19IO 

Canal  under  Sir  Garnet  Wolseley.  At  Tel-el-Kebir  the  English  met 
and  totally  defeated  the  Egyptian  army  led  by  Arabi  Pasha.  A  few 
days  later  they  entered  Cairo,  tried  Arabi  Pasha,  and  sent  him  into 
exile  to  Ceylon,  whence  he  has  only  recently  been  released.  Great 
Britain  had  declared  from  the  first  that  her  occupation  of  Egypt 
was  only  temporary,  until  order  and  prosperity  should  be  restored. 
But  in  fact  the  English  occupation  has  been  indefinitely  postponed, 
and  under  the  able  administration  of  Lord  Cromer  the  country 
has  prospered  wonderfully.  The  Sultan  still  remains  the  nominal 
sovereign  of  Egypt,  but  his  authority  has  vanished,  and  the  history 
of  Egypt  for  the  last  twenty  years  can  hardly  be  regarded  as 
belonging  to  that  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  year  1890  marked  a  recrudescence  of  internal  troubles  in 
Turkey.  The  despotic  rule  of  Abdul  Hamid,  and  the  elaborate 
police  system  established  to  maintain  his  authority,  had  driven 
hundreds  of  liberal  Turks  to  seek  refuge  in  foreign  countries. 
Sheltered  in  Western  Europe  from  the  Sultan's  authority,  the 
Young  Turkey  Party  began  to  revive  and  extend  its  propaganda  in 
spite  of  the  Sultan's  efforts  to  obtain  its  suppression  through  foreign 
governments. 

A  more  formidable  agitation  began  to  spread  among  the 
Christian  peoples  still  subject  to  the  Porte  who  had  been  suffering 
from  the  revival  of  Mohammedan  fervor  stimulated  by  the  Sultan's 
policy.  The  situation  became  exceedingly  grave  among  a  class  of 
the  Sultan's  subjects  who  had  never  before  been  troublesome.  The 
Armenians  had,  almost  alone  among  the  Christians  of  the  empire, 
never  shown  any  revolutionary  spirit  and  had  long  been  called  the 
faithful  nation  by  the  Turks.  The  Armenian  merchants,  regarded 
as  among  the  shrewdest  in  the  East,  divide  with  the  Greeks  the  con- 
trol of  most  of  the  commerce  of  the  empire,  for  the  Turk  is  no 
business  man.  The  quick-witted  Armenians,  too,  formed  invaluable 
officials,  and  many  of  them  have  risen  to  high  posts  at  Constanti- 
nople. Armenians  have  often  represented  the  Porte  at  the  chief 
European  capitals,  and  more  than  one  man  of  Armenian  birth  has 
risen  to  the  Grand  Vizierate  itself.  Thus  the  position  of  the 
Armenians  in  the  empire  was  for  long  far  better  than  that  of  the 
other  Christians.  Armenia  itself  is  a  mountainous  region  of 
eastern  Asia  Minor,  where  the  three  countries,  Russia,  Persia,  and 
Turkey,  meet.  It  has  for  centuries  been  a  battleground  for  western 
Asia,  and  in  consequence  the  Armenian  nations  have  hardly  formed 


498  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

an  independent  state  since  their  King  Tigranes  was  overthrown  by 
the  Roman  generals.  Armenia  is  to-day  inhabited  by  a  mixed  popu- 
lation, Armenians,  Kurds,  Jews,  Turks,  and  Circassians.  The 
Christian  population  is  in  the  minority  in  every  vilayet,  a  fact  which 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  in  the  Armenian  Question.  Down  to 
the  time  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war  Armenia  was  perhaps  better  off 
than  most  of  the  Turkish  provinces,  while  the  Armenian  merchants 
and  bankers  formed  the  richest  class  in  the  empire.  In  Armenia  the 
peaceful  Armenians  and  Kurds  of  the  valley  lived  side  by  side  in 
comparative  harmony,  and  paid  a  sort  of  tribute  to  the  wild 
Kurdish  tribes  of  the  mountains,  who  in  return  protected  them  from 
violence  and  pillage.  The  system  was  in  fact  very  similar  to  that 
which  once  existed  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  where  the  Low- 
land farmer  paid  blackmail  to  the  neighboring  Highland  chief  in 
return  for  his  protection. 

By  the  Treaty  of  Berlin  the  Sultan  had  promised  the  execution 
of  certain  reforms  in  Armenia,  but  no  attempt  was  made  to  put 
them  into  effect.  England,  bound  by  the  Convention  of  Cyprus  to 
exercise  a  sort  of  semi-protectorate  over  Asia  Minor,  made,  it  is 
true,  some  attempts  to  resuscitate  the  reforms,  but  owing  to  lack 
of  support  among  the  other  powers  her  efforts  were  wholly  fruit- 
less. Russia,  who  might  have  been  expected  to  seize  a  new  pretext 
for  intervention,  professed  no  interest  in  the  Armenians,  who  did 
not  belong  to  the  Greek  Orthodox  Church,  and  was  content  to  let 
the  British  Government  bear  the  onus  of  the  matter.  The  favorable 
position  of  the  Armenians  changed  somewhat  for  the  worse  after 
the  Russo-Turkish  war.  Thousands  of  nomadic  Circassians  left 
the  territories  ceded  to  Russia  and  entered  Armenia,  where  they 
retained  their  restless  and  predatory  habits,  content,  as  their 
brethren  had  been  in  Bulgaria,  to  prey  on  the  unfortunate  peasantry. 
Moreover,  the  relations  between  the  Kurds  and  the  Armenians 
altered  for  the  worse.  Sultan  Abdul  Hamid  showed  himself  particu- 
larly favorable  to  the  Kurdish  nation  rather  at  the  expense  of  the 
Armenians.  The  nomad  Kurds  of  the  mountains  had  long  main- 
tained a  semi-independent  attitude  toward  the  Turkish  Government, 
paying  no  taxes  and  acknowledging  only  a  nominal  allegiance  to 
the  Sultan.  Aljdul  Hamid,  in  an  effort  to  bring  these  people  into 
greater  subjection,  organized  from  among  them  regiments  of  cav- 
alry modeled  on  the  Cossack  regiments  in  Russia  and  called  the 
Hamidie.    With  petty  chiefs  of  their  own  for  officers  and  subject  to 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  499 

1878-1910 

no  restraint  save  from  the  Sultan  himself,  this  irregular  cavalry 
formed  a  continual  menace  to  the  peaceable  inhabitants  of  the 
country,  whether  Christian  or  Mohammedan. 

The  situation  of  the  Armenians,  however,  did  not  become  in- 
tolerable until  the  "  faithful  nation  "  began  to  feel  the  same  growth 
of  national  spirit  which  had  been  so  strongly  marked  and  so  suc- 
cessful in  the  Christian  peoples  of  European  Turkey.  In  1890  the 
propaganda  for  an  independent  Artnenian  nation  began  to  spread 
among  the  Armenian  colonies  in  foreign  lands,  especially  in  the 
great  cities  of  Europe,  in  Russia,  and  in  Persia.  Committees  were 
formed  which  issued  proclamations  and  called  on  their  brethren  in 
Armenia  to  rise  in  arms.  The  Huntchagist  Society,  founded  in 
1888,  was  particularly  active  in  the  revolutionary  movement, 
and  did  not  hesitate  to  stoop  to  intimidation  and  murder  to 
forward  its  ends.  Unfortunately  for  themselves,  a  few  Arme- 
nians listened  to  the  revolutionary  agents,  and  demonstrations 
in  various  parts  of  the  country  thoroughly  alarmed  the  Ottoman 
Government.  In  June,  1890,  the  Vali  of  Erzerum,  learning  that  the 
Armenians  had  been  concealing  arms,  ordered  a  perquisition  of  all 
Armenian  houses  and  churches.  The  Armenians  resisted,  and  blood 
was  shed  on  both  sides.  Other  clashes  followed,  and  the  Turkish 
Government  determined  on  the  severest  measures  of  repression. 
The  Turks,  it  must  be  admitted,  have  always  themselves  been  ready 
to  go  to  any  lengths  in  suppressing  risings  among  their  Christian 
subjects  and  find  justification  in  the  Koran,  which  approves  of 
the  destruction  of  unbelieving  subjects  who  resist  the  faithful.  The 
government  found  ready  instruments  in  the  Mohammedan  villagers 
excited  by  the  Armenian  risings,  and  in  the  Hamidie  cavalry,  always 
eager  for  plunder.  In  1894  a  revolutionary  movement  in  the  district 
of  Sassuan  brought  on  an  open  conflict  between  the  Kurds  and 
Armenians.  The  powers  made  new  representations,  and  the  Sultan, 
apparently  yielding,  promised  new  reforms.  Still  the  outrages  con- 
tinued, and  in  September,  1895,  a  band  of  Armenians  in  Constanti- 
nople sought  to  lay  their  grievances  before  the  Sultan  in  person. 
They  were  refused  entrance  to  the  Yildiz  Palace,  and  a  fight  ensued 
between  tliem  and  the  soldiers.  A  general  rising  of  the  Aloham- 
medan  population  in  tlie  city  led  by  the  Softas  f(^]lowed,  and  many 
Armenians  were  killed.  The  news  of  this  riot  in  the  capital,  and 
the  announcement  of  special  reforms  for  the  Armenians  was  the 
signal  for  a  general  rising  of  the  Turks  and  Kurds  of  Anatolia.   All 


500  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

through  the  Armenian  villages  and  in  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor  the 
Mohammedans,  aided  by  the  Hamidie  cavalry,  fell  upon  the 
Armenians  and  massacred  them  by  thousands.  At  one  place  only 
did  the  Armenians  make  any  successful  resistance.  At  Zeitun  3000 
men  seized  the  citadel  and  defied  even  the  efforts  of  regular  troops 
to  dislodge  them.  A  new  outbreak  in  Constantinople  only  served 
to  redouble  the  massacres.  In  August,  1896,  a  few  revolutionists 
seized  the  Ottoman  bank,  and  after  threatening  to  blow  it  up  were 
allowed  to  depart  unharmed.  This  mad  action  served  only  to  ex- 
pose the  Armenians  to  new  horrors.  Organized  bands  of  club  men 
who  acted  in  a  systematic  manner  which  betokened  prearrangement 
fell  upon  the  Armenian  quarter  on  the  Pera  side  of  the  Golden 
Horn  and,  assisted  by  the  rabble,  pillaged  and  slew  for  three  days 
without  interference.  Some  of  the  Armenians  fled  for  refuge  to 
the  Mosque  of  Eyub,  in  the  most  fanatical  part  of  Constantinople, 
and  were  saved  by  the  intervention  of  the  Mohammedan  priests. 
Others  took  refuge  in  the  European  quarter,  and  among  the  Greeks, 
who,  to  their  honor,  defended  them  with  arms.  The  great 
Armenian  quarter  of  Kum  Kapu,  the  seat  of  the  Patriarch,  was 
spared  through  the  prompt  action  of  the  Turkish  commandant, 
Hassan  Aga.  It  is  significant  that  this  massacre,  in  which  6000 
Armenians  are  said  to  have  perished,  was  not  the  result  of  a  general 
rising  of  the  Mohammedan  population.  The  Softas  took  no  part 
in  it,  and  many  Armenians  found  refuge  in  the  Mohammedan 
sections  of  the  city. 

By  the  end  of  1896,  after  two  years  of  confusion  and  massacre, 
it  is  estimated  that  over  40,000  Armenians  had  perished.  The  re- 
ports, many  of  them  grossly  exaggerated,  which  reached  Europe 
had  excited  the  greatest  indignation,  especially  in  England;  "the 
horror  of  the  Armenian  massacres,"  said  Lord  Salisbury,  "  has 
made  Europe  turn  pale."  In  the  English  press  the  number  of  vic- 
tims was  generally  reported  to  be  over  300,000.  But  the  European 
governments  had  done  nothing  to  remedy  matters.  Divergences 
of  policy  and  mutual  suspicions  had  again  paralyzed  the  action  of 
the  so-called  European  Concert.  Two  powers  might  be  regarded  as 
especially  concerned  with  the  future  of  Armenia :  Russia,  with 
provinces  bordering  on  that  country,  and  England,  bound  by  the 
Cyprus  Convention  to  a  general  responsibility  for  Asia  i\Iinor.  But 
as  usual,  the  interests  and  policies  of  the  two  great  nations  were 
antagonistic.    To  Russia  the  possession  of  Armenia  would  be  of  the 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  501 

1878-1910 

greatest  strategic  importance.  From  its  plateaus  she  could  com- 
mand on  the  one  hand  the  littoral  of  the  Black  Sea,  on  the  other  the 
shores  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  through  Armenia  the  line  of  ad- 
vance toward  the  Mediterranean  would  be  greatly  shortened.  It 
was,  indeed,  to  meet  this  expected  advance  that  Disraeli  had  ac- 
quired Cyprus  for  England  and  guaranteed  to  Turkey  the  integrity 
of  Asia  Minor.  Thus  the  idea  of  an  independent  Armenian  state, 
a  sort  of  Bulgaria  in  Asia,  was  repugnant  to  Russia,  the  more  so  as 
the  Armenians  could  command  none  of  that  religious  and  racial 
sympathy  wdiich  had  so  effectively  aided  the  peoples  of  the  Balkans 
in  their  struggle  for  liberty.  On  the  other  hand,  Russia  had,  since 
the  war  of  1877,  changed  ostensibly  her  attitude  toward  the  Turks, 
and  from  being  their  persistent  foe  now  chose  to  pose  as  a  friend 
and  counselor.  Convinced  that  the  seizure  of  Constantinople,  which 
Napoleon  had  said  would  give  its  possessor  the  mastery  of  the 
world,  was  impossible  in  view  of  the  repeated  declarations  of  the 
rest  of  Europe,  Russia  was  ready  to  assume  the  position  of  pro- 
tector of  Turkey  against  the  aggression  of  other  powers.  Thus  the 
attitude  of  Russia  at  this  time  was  summed  up  in  an  inspired 
editorial  which  appeared  in  a  Russian  paper,  "  not  a  drop  of 
Russian  blood  shall  be  shed;  not  an  inch  of  the  Russian  inheritance 
shall  be  lost." 

England  had  on  the  contrary  every  reason  for  desiring  the 
formation  of  an  Armenian  state  under  English  protection,  which 
would  form  a  decided  obstacle  to  Russian  advance  in  that  part  of 
Asia.  But  since  the  Russo-Turkish  War  the  influence  of  England 
in  Constantinople,  once  dominant,  had  almost  entirely  vanished 
and  had  been  replaced  by  that  of  Germany  and  Russia.  The  return 
to  power  of  the  Liberal  Party,  which  was  anti-Turkish  in  its  sympa- 
thies, the  support  given  by  the  English  Government  to  Greece 
and  Bulgaria,  the  occupation  of  Egypt,  and  finally  the  general  in- 
dignation expressed  in  England  over  the  Armenian  massacres,  had 
all  combined  to  transform  the  Turks  into  enemies,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  principle  of  the  integrity  of  the  Ottoman  Empire  had 
ceased  to  dominate  the  policy  of  English  ministries.  But  however 
great  England's  sympathy  for  Armenia,  she  could  do  nothing  in  the 
face  of  the  attitude  of  the  other  powers,  who  would  not  consent  to 
any  separate  intervention,  and  yet  could  not  agree  on  any  course 
of  common  action.  This  lack  of  concord  was  skillfully  taken  ad- 
vantage of  by  the  Porte  to  render   all   attempts    to    aid    Armenia 


602  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

nugatory.  It  is  true  that  something  was  done.  Commissions  were 
appointed  to  investigate  conditions  and  schemes  of  reform  were 
drawn  up,  and  after  long  delays  accepted  by  the  Porte,  which,  how- 
ever, took  care  not  to  allow  the  insertion  of  provisions  which  might 
make  them  effective.  But  it  soon  became  evident  that  only  by  force 
of  arms  could  Turkey  be  brought  to  undertake  any  real  reforms  in 
Armenia,  and  none  of  the  powers  were  willing  to  take  the  risks  of 
so  vital  a  step.  New  complications  in  another  part  of  the  empire 
arose  to  distract  Europe's  attention,  and  the  Armenians  were  left 
to  their  fate. 

The  Armenian  cause  seems  to-day  a  well-nigh  hopeless  one. 
The  dream  of  an  independent  Christian  kingdom  of  Armenia  was 
from  the  outset,  in  view  of  the  great  majority  of  Mohammedans, 
merely  a  dream.  Abandoned  on  the  one  hand  by  Russia,  which  per- 
secutes the  Armenian  Church  in  its  own  territories,  and  on  the  other 
by  England,  whose  influence  in  Turkey  has  vanished,  living  with 
the  ever-impending  fear  of  new  massacres  by  their  triumphant 
Kurdish  enemies,  the  situation  of  the  Armenians  is  to-day  a  pitiful 
one.  The  United  States  has  in  the  past  few  years  become  involved 
in  the  Armenian  tangle  on  account  of  the  missionary  schools  and 
colleges  established  in  Armenia,  which  are  looked  on  by  the  Turks 
as  centers  for  revolutionary  propaganda.  Furthermore,  the  perse- 
cution in  Turkey  of  Armenians  who  had  been  naturalized  citizens 
of  the  United  States  was  an  extremely  fruitful  source  of  troubles 
between  the  United  States  and  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

The  events  which  turned  the  attention  of  Europe  away  from 
hapless  Armenia  were  centered  about  the  ever  restless  Island  of 
Crete.  Under  the  Pact  of  Haleppa,  granted  in  1868,  the  Cretans 
enjoyed  a  much  better  government  than  the  rest  of  the  subjects  of 
the  empire,  whether  Christian  or  Mohammedan.  The  balance  of 
power  lay  in  the  hands  of  the  Christians,  who  controlled  the  legis- 
lative council  and  held  a  majority  of  minor  official  places.  Still  the 
Cretans  had  by  no  means  lost  their  desire  for  union  with  Greece, 
and  though  the  Porte  with  unusual  patience  tried  to  check  the 
movement  by  new  concessions,  the  separatist  spirit  continued  to 
grow  and  culminated  in  1889  in  a  partial  rising  of  the  Christian 
population.  The  movement  met  with  little  outside  sympathy  save 
in  Greece.  The  Porte  promptly  threw  40,000  men  into  the  island, 
and  the  rising  was  soon  put  down.  The  only  result  of  this  abortive 
movement  was  the  loss  to  tlie  Cretans  of  the  privileges  they  had 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  503 

1878-1910 

hitherto  possessed.  The  Ottoman  Government  by  a  firman  reduced 
the  powers  of  the  general  assembly  and  increased  the  proportion  of 
Mohammedans  both  in  the  assembly  and  in  all  official  positions.  At 
the  same  time  the  powers  of  the  Turkish  governor  were  increased 
and  the  levy  of  taxes  was  made  more  rigorous.  For  some  years  the 
Cretans  remained  submissive  to  the  new  state  of  things.  The 
troubles  in  Asia  Minor,  which  began  in  1894,  revived  the  hopes  of 
the  Cretans,  who  saw  in  the  general  disorder  an  opportunity  to  re- 
gain their  lost  privileges.  The  old  agitation  was  revived,  and 
demands  were  made  for  a  revision  of  the  taxes,  a  renewal  of  the 
financial  powers  of  the  assembly,  and  the  appointment  of  a  Christian 
governor.  The  Ottoman  Government,  desirous  of  avoiding  new 
conflicts,  conceded  everything,  and  a  Christian  governor  was  sent 
to  the  island.  But  the  restoration  of  Christian  supremacy  only 
served  to  irritate  the  IMohammedan  minority,  and  a  religious  war 
seemed  imminent,  when  the  powers  intervened  and  offered  their 
mediation,  which  was  promptly  accepted  by  the  Porte.  A  new 
plan  of  reform  was  drawn  up  and  its  execution  guaranteed  by  the 
powers.  But  the  Porte  was  full  of  expedients  to  avoid  the  per- 
formance of  the  new  promises,  which  practically  gave  the  Cretans 
an  autonomous  government.  At  the  same  time  the  Mohammedans, 
assured  of  Turkish  sympathy,  remained  in  an  excited  state,  and  fre- 
quent conflicts  took  place  between  them  and  the  Christians.  In 
February,  1897,  the  Mohammedans  rose  in  arms  and  massacred  the 
Christians  in  Candia  in  the  face  of  European  warships  sent  to 
preserve  order.  The  whole  island  was  soon  in  a  blaze  of  insurrec- 
tion. The  Christians  were  now  determined  to  stop  at  nothing  but 
the  extermination  of  the  whole  Mohammedan  population  and  a 
union  with  Greece.  In  Greece  the  sympathy  for  the  Cretans  was 
unbounded.  The  famous  Ethnike  Hetairia,  or  National  League, 
called  for  intervention,  and  the  Greek  g"o\"ernment,  carried  away  by 
the  tide  of  popular  feeling,  took  active  steps  toward  aiding  the  in- 
surgents. On  February  10  Prince  George,  with  a  fleet  of  torpedo- 
boats,  left  for  Crete,  and  a  few  days  later  2000  Greek  troops  under 
Colonel  Vassos  landed  in  the  island.  This  attempt  to  force  matters 
was  received  with  indignation  by  the  mediating  powers.  Though 
unwilling  to  return  Crete  to  Tur]-:ey  now  that  the  island  had  prac- 
tically established  a  state  of  independence,  they  were  equally  de- 
termined not  to  permit  a  union  with  Greece.  The  attitude  of  the 
powers  through  all  the   recent  crises  in  the  Near  East  has  been 


504  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

dictated  by  an  anxious  desire  to  avoid  complications  which  might 
endanger  the  general  peace  of  Europe,  In  the  present  instance  they 
feared  that  the  annexation  of  Crete  to  Greece  would  provoke  de- 
mands for  compensation  by  Bulgaria  and  Servia,  with  the  result 
of  setting  the  Balkans  in  flames  and  drawing  the  European  powers 
into  the  vortex.  A  compromise  was  then  decided  on,  and  a  plan 
accepted  by  the  powers  by  which  an  autonomous  government  was 
to  be  set  up  in  Crete  with  a  Christian  governor  appointed  by  them. 
Accordingly  the  allied  fleets  landed  some  hundreds  of  troops  at  the 
chief  ports  of  Crete,  and  on  the  refusal  of  the  Greeks  to  withdraw 
their  soldiers  from  the  island  a  pacific  blockade  of  the  coast  was 
proclaimed. 

In  Greece  itself  the  patriotic  society  called  the  Ethnike 
Hetairia  was  now  in  complete  control,  and  any  resistance  to  its 
demands  on  the  part  of  King  George  would  probably  have  cost  him 
his  throne.  By  sending  troops  to  Crete,  Greece  had  openly  risked 
a  war  with  Turkey,  and  with  this  eventuality  in  view  both  parties 
had  begun  to  mass  troops  on  the  borders  of  Thessaly.  In  spite  of 
their  inferior  strength  the  Greeks  were  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the 
war,  and  were  confident  in  victory,  believing  that  they  would  be 
supported  by  a  general  rising  in  the  Balkans.  The  situation 
rendered  useless  all  efforts  of  the  powers  to  maintain  peace.  On 
April  9  bands  of  Greek  volunteers  collected  by  agents  of  the  Ethnike 
Hetairia  crossed  the  frontier  into  Epirus  and  Macedonia  and  en- 
gaged the  Turkish  troops.  On  the  17th  the  Sultan  declared  war 
and  ordered  his  generals  to  open  hostilities.  The  campaign  was  a 
short  one.  The  Greeks  were  disappointed  in  their  hopes  of  aid,  for 
neither  did  the  expected  rising  take  place  in  Macedonia  nor  did  the 
Balkan  states  depart  from  an  attitude  of  strict  neutrality.  Thrown 
on  their  own  resources  the  Greeks  were  soon  overwhelmed  by  the 
splendid  fighting  force  which  the  Sultan  was  able  to  send  against 
them. 

On  April  18  the  Turkish  troops  under  Edham  Pasha  com- 
menced the  advance  into  Thessaly,  and  after  a  fierce  skirmish 
carried  the  Metuna  Pass  and  drove  the  Greeks  back  on  Larissa.  On 
the  24th  the  Greeks,  who  were  commanded  by  the  Crown  Prince 
Constantine,  abandoned  Larissa  and  fell  back  through  Thessaly  to 
Velestino  and  Pharsala,  followed  leisurely  by  the  Turks.  A  new 
series  of  engagements  took  place  from  May  2  to  5,  and  the  Greeks 
again  abandoning  their  lines  retreated  to  a  still  stronger  position  at 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  605 

1878  1910 

Domokos.  Meantime  two  Greek  attempts  to  penetrate  Epirus  had 
been  easily  repulsed  by  the  Turks.  The  excitement  was  intense  in 
Athens;  the  Delyannis  ministry  fell,  but  their  successors  still  re- 
fused the  mediation  of  the  powers.  On  May  17  the  Turks  stormed 
the  Greek  positions  at  Domokos  after  a  fierce  conflict,  in  which  the 
Greeks  for  the  first  and  only  time  made  a  resolute  stand.  The  vic- 
tory of  Domokos  opened  the  way  to  Athens,  and  the  Ottoman 
troops  were  only  checked  in  their  advance  by  the  news  that  an 
armistice  had  been  concluded.  At  first  the  Ottoman  Government, 
supported  by  her  new  ally,  Germany,  raised  exorbitant  preten- 
sions, demanding  the  recession  of  the  whole  of  Thessaly  and  a  war 
indemnity  of  ten  million  pounds  Turkish  ($46,000,000).  But 
Europe  did  not  intend  to  allow  the  utter  ruin  of  Greece,  and  by  the 
treaty  finally  signed  at  Constantinople  Greece  was  condemned  to  pay 
an  indemnity  of  four  millions  ($18,000,000)  and  to  consent  to  a 
rectification  of  frontier  by  which  Turkey,  without  recovering  any 
Christian  villages,  secured  control  of  the  passes  into  Thessaly.  An 
international  commission  was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the 
Greek  finances  as  a  guarantee  of  the  payment  of  the  indemnity. 

The  Greco-Turkish  war  showed  clearly  to  the  world  that 
Turkey  was  still  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with.  The  Turkish  troops 
had  proved  themselves  to  be  vastly  superior  to  the  Greeks  in  every 
way,  and  had  distinguished  themselves  by  a  strictness  of  discipline 
and  by  a  total  absence  of  pillaging  and  those  atrocities  so  commonly 
associated  with  Ottoman  armies  in  war  time.  With  a  distinct 
strengthening  of  the  position  of  Turkey  the  war  had  also  brought 
the  utter  collapse  of  Hellenistic  ambitions  and  the  elimination  of 
Greece  for  years  as  a  factor  in  the  politics  of  the  Balkans.  The 
war  made  no  change  in  the  situation  in  Crete.  The  compromise 
plan  of  an  autonomous  government  under  nominal  Turkish  suzer- 
ainty was  carried  out,  and  a  distinct  concession  to  Greek  sentiment 
was  made  in  the  appointment  of  Prince  George  of  Greece  as  gov- 
ernor-general, in  spite  of  Turkish  protests.  The  hostile  attitude  of 
the  Turkish  garrison  to  tlie  Christians  soon  led  to  its  final  expulsion 
by  the  powers.  The  great  difilculty  in  Crete  has  been  the  presence  of 
a  strong  Mohammedan  element,  and  this  question  seems  to  be 
solving  itself  by  a  distinct  emigration  of  the  Mohammedans  from 
tlie  island. 

One  of  the  chief  results  of  the  Greek  war  was  the  apparent 
extinction  of  Hellenistic  influence  in  the  Balkans,  and  especially  in 


506  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

the  province  of  Macedonia.  Of  all  the  problems  connected  with 
the  history  of  Turkey  in  our  own  times  the  Macedonian  question 
is  perhaps  the  most  perplexing.  The  name  Macedonia  is  applied 
broadly  to  the  mountainous  region  in  the  central  part  of  the  Balkan 
peninsula  extending  from  the  vicinity  of  Adrianople  on  the  east  to 
the  borders  of  Albania  on  the  west.  The  region  is  inhabited  by  a 
number  of  peoples  with  antagonistic  aspirations,  whose  inextricable 
mingling  presents  the  chief  difficulty  in  the  Macedonian  question. 
IMingled  side  by  side,  village  by  village,  we  find  Servians,  Bulgar- 
ians, Wallachians,  Turks,  and  Albanians,  with  a  strong  Greek  and 
Jewish  element  in  the  southern  towns.  It  is  impossible  to  obtain 
exact  statistics  of  this  heterogeneous  population,  and  the  wildest 
guesses  have  been  made  by  partisan  writers.  It  is,  however,  safe  to 
say  that  the  Slavic  elements,  especially  the  Bulgarians,  are  in  the 
great  majority — the  distinction  between  Bulgarians  and  Serbs  being 
a  political  rather  than  a  racial  one.  The  Greeks  and  Kutzo  Wal- 
lachs  probably  form  only  a  small  proportion  of  the  population,  while 
the  Mohammedan  element,  both  Turkish  and  Albanian,  has  un- 
doubtedly increased  since  1878.  Thousands  of  Mussulmans  fleeing 
from  the  oppressive  legislation  directed  against  them  in  Bulgaria 
have  settled  in  Macedonia,  and  the  Mohammedans  form  to-day 
about  one-third  of  the  population. 

Down  to  1878  the  Christian  population  of  Macedonia  had  on 
the  whole  presented  a  solid  front  against  the  Turks,  with  Greek 
influence  predominant.  But  the  rise  of  national  consciousness 
among  the  Slavic  peoples  of  the  Balkans,  and  particularly  among 
the  Bulgarians,  struck  a  deadly  blow  to  Greek  aspirations.  In  1870 
a  Bulgarian  church  independent  of  the  Greek  was  established.  In 
1878  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano,  Macedonia  was  included  in  the 
great  Bulgarian  state,  a  fact  which  the  Bulgarians  have  never  for- 
gotten. In  vain  did  the  Greeks  make  desperate  efforts  to  maintain 
their  supremacy,  venturing  more  than  once  on  the  verge  of  war  with 
Turkey.  The  Slavic  propaganda  grew  rapidly,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  war  of  1897  completed  the  downfall  of  Hellenistic  in- 
fluence. It  remained  for  the  growth  of  Slavic  racial  feeling  to 
threaten  to  the  utmost  the  grasp  of  the  Turks  on  Macedonia. 

The  agitation  for  the  union  of  Macedonia  with  Bulgaria  con- 
tinued after  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  and  was  given  fresh  impetus  by 
tlie  union  with  Eastern  Rumelia  in  1886.  The  relations  between 
Bulgaria  and  Macedonia  arc  of  the  closest.      The  majority  of  the 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  507 

1878-1910 

Christians  in  Macedonia  are  of  Bulgarian  race  and  speech,  and  the 
Bulgarian  Church  numbers  many  adherents.  Throughout  the 
province  are  schools  provided  by  Bulgarian  funds,  which  are 
largely  attended  by  Macedonians.  After  the  Russo-Turkish  War 
thousands  of  Macedonians  abandoned  their  homes  and  flocked  into 
the  new  state.  The  Bulgarian  army  is  filled  with  Macedonians, 
who  constitute  one-third  of  its  officers.  Revolutionary  committees 
were  organized  in  Bulgaria,  and  from  their  headquarters  in  Sofia 
have  kept  up  a  constant  agitation. 

The  situation  of  the  Christians  in  Macedonia  was  probably 
improved  after  the  Russian  war,  for  the  Porte  was  anxious  to  con- 
firm its  hold  on  the  provinces  remaining  to  it  in  Europe.  But  of 
recent  years  the  expansion  of  the  Albanians,  the  most  warlike  and 
unruly  people  of  the  Balkans,  who,  as  devout  Mohammedans,  de- 
spised and  oppressed  their  Christian  neighbors,  the  immigration  of 
Bulgarian  Mohammedans  smarting  under  the  injuries  which  had 
forced  them  to  leave  their  homes,  and  finally  the  general  revival  of 
Mussulman  fanaticism,  have  all  combined  to  render  the  state  of  the 
Macedonian  peasant  a  miserable  one.  On  the  other  hand,  Mace- 
donia, most  suitable  from  its  mountainous  character  for  guerrilla 
warfare,  has  been  constantly  infested  by  revolutionary  bands  half 
brigand,  half  revolutionary,  and  every  spring  reports  of  risings 
have  been  current.  The  region  has  in  fact  been  constantly  dis- 
tracted by  feuds  between  Albanian  and  Bulgarian,  Mohammedan 
and  Christian,  and  has  thus  come  to  be  a  very  hotbed  of  revolution. 
In  1902  the  revolutionary  committees  had  obtained  the  needful 
sinews  of  war.  A  premature  rising  took  place  in  October,  and  it 
was  known  that  the  Macedonian  committee  was  ready  for  a  grand 
effort  in  the  spring.  At  this  juncture  Russia  and  Austria  both 
intervened :  Count  Lamsdorff,  the  Russian  foreign  minister,  made  a 
tour  through  the  Balkans  and  obliged  the  Bulgarian  Government  to 
arrest  the  revolutionary  leaders,  while  a  plan  of  reform  was  ac- 
cepted by  the  Porte  and  put  into  operation.  Nevertheless,  the  ex- 
pected rising  came  in  the  spring  of  1903,  and  bands  of  revolutionists 
traversed  the  whole  country,  attacking  Mohammedan  villages  and 
cutting  off  small  detachments  of  Turkish  troops.  It  was  evident 
from  the  start  that  the  revolutionists  were  determined  bv  a  series 
of  outrages  to  provoke  the  Turks  to  atrocities  which  would  force 
Europe  to  intervene.  Thus  the  whole  year  was  a  record  of  re- 
ported outrages  committed  by  Bulgarians,  Turks,  and  Albanians. 


508  TURKEY 

1678-1910 

Both  Bulgaria  and  Turkey  mobilized  their  troops,  and  war  was  only 
prevented  by  the  vigorous  intervention  of  Russia  and  Austria.  In 
August  fresh  outrages  near  Adrianople  led  to  the  dispatch  of  a  Rus- 
sian squadron  to  the  Black  Sea  coast  of  Turkey.  Early  in  October 
a  new  set  of  reforms  was  presented  by  Russia  and  Austria  with  the 
consent  of  the  other  powers,  and  while  nothing  has  at  this  writing 
been  settled,  the  probable  outcome  seems  the  establishment  of  an 
autonomous  government  in  Macedonia  under  joint  foreign  control. 
An  interesting  feature  of  the  present  crisis  in  the  Near  East  has  been 
the  awakening  of  British  public  opinion  to  a  realizing  sense  of  the 
responsibility  which  England,  by  her  action  at  the  Berlin  congress, 
bears  for  the  present  conditions  in  Macedonia. 

An  important  factor  in  the  recent  history  of  the  Ottoman 
Empire  has  been  the  close  relations  established  between  Turkey  and 
the  German  Empire.  Under  William  II.  Germany  has  entered  upon 
a  career  of  political  and  commercial  expansion  which  has  been  par- 
ticularly significant  in  the  Near  East.  German  influence  has  in 
recent  crises  been  invariably  thrown  on  the  side  of  the  Porte.  In 
return  German  commercial  enterprise  has  found  a  field  for  expan- 
sion in  Asia  Minor  and  Germany,  as  the  "  honest  broker  "  has 
almost  alone  in  recent  years  gained  substantial  advantages  in 
Turkey.  German  capital  has  obtained  control  of  nearly  all  the 
railroads  in  Asia  Minor,  and,  aided  by  the  issue  of  Ottoman  bonds, 
of  which  Germans  are  the  chief  holders,  has  become  the  con- 
structor of  the  Bagdad  railroad,  which  is  to  connect  Constantinople 
with  the  Persian  Gulf  and  thus  open  a  new  field  for  German  com- 
mercial enterprise  in  southern  Asia,  Indeed  the  English  have 
recognized  the  menace  of  the  railroad  to  their  control  of  the  Persian 
Gulf,  and  the  recent  efforts  of  the  British  Government  to  strengthen 
its  hold  in  that  region,  though  chiefly  directed  to  check  the  Russian 
advance  in  Persia,  has  doubtless  also  the  danger  of  a  future  German 
commercial  invasion  in  view.  Aside  from  Germany,  however,  the 
Ottoman  Empire  had  no  real  friend  in  Europe.  Russia's  policy, 
read  in  the  light  of  the  past,  is  too  evident  to  need  further  explana- 
tion ;  Austria  and  Italy  would  look  with  complacency  on  a  partition 
of  European  Turkey  provided  they  might  receive  compensation,  the 
one  in  IMacedonia  the  other  in  Albania.  France's  chief  interest  is 
at  present  in  the  western  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  while  England, 
entrenched  in  Cyprus  and  Egypt,  has  no  such  vital  reasons  for  ex- 
cluding Russia  from  Constantinople  as  dictated  her  policy  at  the 


THE   EMPIRE    TO-DAY  509 

1878-1910 

congress  of  Berlin.  In  fact,  Turkey  was  saved  for  thirty  years 
only  by  the  very  divergences  in  policy  and  the  fear  of  a  general 
upheaval  which  made  the  concert  of  Europe  so  impotent  during 
the  Armenian  massacres. 

In    1905    Europe,   having  long  awaited  the   Sultan's   promise 
of  certain  much-needed  financial  reform,  determined  upon  a  system 


TURKEY'S  LOSSES  IN  EUROPE  •'t- to  «TH.e«Tu«.M 


of  international  control.  The  proposition  met  with  vigorous  re- 
jection by  Abdul  Hamid,  who  denounced  the  intervention  of  the 
powers  as  unwarranted  and  officious.  At  the  same  time  he  outlined 
reforms  in  the  financial  system,  which  met  with  the  acquiesence 
of  the  powers.  The  powers,  however,  persisted  in  appointing  an 
international  commission  to  supervise  their  execution.  The  ob- 
structive policy  characteristic  of  the  East  long  retarded  any 
definite  action.     At  lengfth  a  communication  was  laid  before  the 


510  TURKEY 

1878-1910 

Sultan,  but  Abdul  Hamid  was  firm  in  his  opposition  to  anything 
savoring  of  foreign  direction.  The  powers  met  obstinacy  with 
force,  threatened  a  naval  demonstration,  and  fleets  were  assembled 
off  Mytilene. 

Meanwhile,  in  July,  1905,  atrocities  in  Bulgaria,  which  is  still 
nominally  subject  to  Turkey,  called  for  the  intervention  of  the 
powers.  Sharp  differences  arose  between  the  Greek  and  Rumanian 
inhabitants  of  Macedonia  on  account  of  the  governmental  pref- 
erences shown  the  latter. 

Germany's  attitude  alone  broke  the  concert  of  Europe.  It 
was  declared  that  the  German  emperor's  policy  was  to  preserve 
the  mutual  dissensions  of  the  powers  and  their  rivalry  for  com- 
mercial or  other  advantages.  This  attitude,  so  fortunate  for  Tur- 
key, could  only  be  maintained  on  the  terms  of  extraordinary  com- 
mercial privileges  granted  the  German  Empire.  Thus  the  integrity 
of  Turkey  rested  in  the  main  upon  this  balance  of  favors,  and 
Germany  was  recognized  by  the  onlcoking  powers  as  the  "nurse 
of  the  Sick  Man  of  the  East." 

During  all  these  years,  however,  the  Young  Turks  were 
working  silently,  yet  steadily,  adding  to  their  numbers  in  the  very 
harem  of  the  Sultan  himself.  The  women  of  Turkey  bore  a  very 
important  part  in  bringing  about  the  present  state  of  affairs.  One 
of  the  most  noted  of  them  is  Refeka  Hanoum,  daughter  of  Kiamel 
Pasha,  who  was  also  one  of  the  first  to  engage  in  the  work. 
Through  her  the  Sultan's  own  sister  was  won  over,  and  by  them 
both,  converts  were  made  in  the  harem.  The  most  popular  of 
the  leaders  is  Major  Enver  Bey,  to  whose  influence  the  most 
radical  changes  are  due.  Others  who  contributed  largely  towards 
the  success  of  the  new  party  are:  Ahmed  Riza,  editor  of  the 
Mechveret,  who  conducted  the  Young  Turk  propaganda  for  years 
from  Paris,  afterwards  becoming  a  member  of  the  Committee  of 
Union  and  Progress,  and  eventually  president  of  the  first  parlia- 
ment;  Niazi  Bey,  disciplinarian  of  the  European  corps  of  the 
army;  Kiamil  Pasha;  Hilmi  Pasha;  Tewfik  Pasha  and  Gabriel 
Nurendsungian  Effendi,  first  Christian  member  of  the  Turkish 
ministry,  and  now  Minister  of  Public  Works  and  Commerce. 
Under  the  leadership  of  these  men,  the  movement  grew,  and  its 
influence  became  so  powerful  that  Abdul  Hamid  was  forced  to 
grant  their  request,  and  the  old  constitution  of  1876  was  pro- 
claimed July   15,   T908,  giving  to  the  people  of  Turkey  their  first 


THE   EMPIRE    TO-DAY  510a 

1878  1910 

real  parliament,  for  the  one  convened  in  1876,  only  lasted  a  couple 
of  weeks  and  was  not  intended  as  a  permanent  organization.  This 
parliament  opened  December  17,  at  Constantinople,  with  one 
deputy  for  every  50,000  males  in  the  empire,  the  entire  chamber 
of  two  houses,  containing  240  deputies.  One  of  the  remarkable 
features  of  the  elections  preceding  this  opening,  was  the  public 
procession  through  the  streets  of  the  public  officials,  carefully 
guarded,  carrying  the  municipal  ballot  boxes.  To  show  his  good 
feeling,  Abdul  Hamid  gave  a  banquet  to  the  deputies  on  New 
Years'  eve,  the  first  function  of  its  kind  ever  celebrated  in  the 
Ottoman  Empire.  Further  instance  of  the  changes  that  were 
steadily  taking  place  was  the  sending  of  the  first  ambassador  to 
the  United  States,  Hussein  Kiazim  Bey,  who  arrived  in  Washing- 
ton early  in  January,  1909. 

In  the  meanwhile  Turkey  was  having  additional  trouble  with 
Crete  and  Bulgaria,  finally,  on  September  25,  1908,  appealing  to 
the  Powers  against  the  continued  occupancy  of  the  Eastern 
Rumelian  section  of  the  Oriental  railroad  by  Bulgarian  troops. 
The  Powers  on  September  28^  declared  that  this  occupancy  was 
not  justified,  and  in  October,  France,  England  and  Russia  united 
in  their  efforts  to  prevent  war  between  Bulgaria  and  Turkey.  So 
strong  did  the  feeling  become  against  the  countries  involved,  that 
on  October  10,  there  was  a  popular  movement  started  to  boycott 
Austrian,  Bulgarian  and  German  products  in  Constantinople,  but 
by  October  29,  a  preliminary  agreement  was  reached  between 
Bulgaria  and  Turkey.  The  latter,  however,  made  such  severe 
demands  upon  Bulgaria,  that  on  November  6,  the  latter  appealed 
to  Russia  asking  its  intervention  to  secure  a  modification  of  them. 
Austria-Hungary  repudiated  the  Bulgarian  debt.  The  Powers 
eventually  settled  the  matter,  by  causing  Turkey  to  modify  its 
demands.  The  troubles  in  Crete  dragged  on,  Turkey  interfering 
in  every  way  the  Powers  would  permit,  until  finally  they  were 
forced  to  declare  that  they  were  in  control  and  any  interference 
would  be  regarded  by  them  as  hostile.  Turkey  replied,  in  August, 
1909,  that  it  had  no  ambition  regarding  Crete.  On  January  8,  1910, 
the  Sultan  remonstrated  to  the  Powers  with  regard  to  the  people 
of  Crete  taking  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Greece.  Like  other 
Ottoman  matters,  the  Crete  situation  is  still  (~)pcn,  although  it  is 
not  likely  that  the  I^nvers  will  allow  Turkey  to  gain  any  foothold 
in  that  island.     The  Balkans,  the  seat  of  so  much  trouble  to  all 


510b  TURK  E  Y 

1878  1910 

the  nations  in  any  way  concerned  in  them,  have  given  Turkey  a 
fair  share  of  anxiety,  but  the  proposed  visit  of  King  Ferdinand 
of  Bulgaria  to  the  Sultan,  is  expected  to  relieve  much  of  the 
strained  conditions. 

Whue  foreign  affairs  occupied  Turkey,  the  internal  situation 
became  so  grave  that  but  little  else  was  thought  of,  for  Abdul 
Hamid  did  not  live  up  to  his  promises  made  when  he  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  new  constitution.  His  promises  were 
many,  but  he  failed  to  live  up  to  them,  and  the  Young  Turks  party 
gained  steadily  in  influence.  The  first  open  manifestation  was 
made  on  February  14,  1909,  when  Kiamil  Pasha  resigned  in  re- 
sponse to  the  expression  of  a  lack  of  confidence  in  him  by  parlia- 
ment, he  being  succeeded  by  Hussein  Hilma  Pasha,  a  constitu- 
tionalist. The  latter  formed  a  new  cabinet,  with  Ali  Riza  Pasha 
minister  of  war  and  marine^  and  Rifaat  Pasha  minister  of  foreign 
affairs.  Naturally  this  was  a  decided  victory  for  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress,  the  executive  organization  of  the  new 
party.  Unfortunately  the  Sultan  could  not  see  the  trend  of  events, 
and  continued  his  plottings,  until  it  was  rumored  that  he  and 
his  adherents  were  aiming  at  the  destruction  of  the  constitution. 
The  Sultan  declared,  causing  the  news  to  be  spread  among  the 
common  soldiers,  that  the  committee  intended  not  only  to  abolish 
the  constitution,  but  to  do  away  with  the  religion  of  Mohammed, 
])ecoming  themselves  the  sole  dictators.  The  Sultan  did  not  hesi- 
tate to  buy  the  soldiers  to  commit  acts  of  insubordination.  On 
Alarch  31,  occurred  the  first  mutiny,  an  Arab  battalion  at  the 
Kildiz  Kiosk  and  its  vicinity,  rebelling  and  being  subdued  with 
great  difficulty.  This  was  followed  on  April  13  by  the  mutiny 
of  the  Fourth  battalion  of  the  Saloniki  chasseurs.  More  batallions 
followed  in  the  mutiny,  and  by  morning  thousands  were  marching 
about  the  streets,  without  leaders,  utterly  demoralized.  They 
seized  the  telegraph  offices  and  parliament  building  and  demanded 
the  resignation  of  the  officers  in  control.  Seventeen  were  killed, 
and  515  were  wounded.  Two  of  the  members  of  the  Committee 
of  Union  and  Progress  were  assassinated,  the  newspaper  offices 
were  sacked,  and  Plussein  Djahid,  editor  of  the  Young  Turks 
organ,  Tallin,  was  killed.  The  greatest  of  confusion  prevailed 
during  the  13th  and  14th,  and  the  Sultan  sent  out  bodies  of  soldiers 
to  seek  and  kill  those  believed  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the  Young 
Turks   movement.     From   fifteen   to   twenty  of   these   were   shot. 


THE    EMPIRE    TO-DAY  510c 

18r8-1910 

Instead  of  punishing  the  revolutionists,  the  Sultan  issued  a  general 
pardon,  the  soldiers  returned  to  their  barracks,  and  appointed 
Tewfik  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier,  who  formed  a  reactionary  cabinet. 

The  Young  Turks  immediately  rallied,  mobilizing  their  forces. 
In  the  meanwhile  Bulgarian  troops  were  stationed  on  the  frontier 
to  move  upon  Turkey  at  any  moment.  Taking  advantage  of  the 
disturbed  condition  of  affairs,  armed  bands  of  Mohammedans, 
Kurds  and  other  disaffected  elements  attacked  Adana,  Tarsus, 
Mercina,  Alexandretta  and  Kharput  in  Asia  Minor,  massacring 
native  Christians,  principally  Armenians,  who  are  always  made  to 
suffer  upon  any  outbreak.  The  deaths  among  the  Armenians 
amounted  to  5,000,  and  two  American  missionaries  were  also 
killed.  Adana  was  burned  to  the  ground.  Claims  against  Turkey 
for  losses  during  this  outbreak  are  still  unsettled,  the  government 
claiming  it  is  not  responsible  for  them. 

On  April  23,  the  constitutionalists  from  Salonika,  composed 
of  the  Third  Army  Corps  (the  Macedonians)  commanded  by 
Chevket  Pasha  took  possession  of  Stamboul,  the  old  Turkish 
quarter  of  the  city.  They  absorbed  all  the  opposing  elements, 
until  within  forty-eight  hours,  they  took  Pera,  the  foreign  quarter 
and  finally  the  Kildiz  Kiosk,  with  the  Sultan  himself.  This  victory 
was  singularly  bloodless,  the  only  fighting  being  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  palace,  and  less  than  500  were  killed,  and  no  foreigners  were 
injured.  In  less  than  three  days,  the  Sultan  abdicated,  and  his 
brother  Mehmed  V.  was  proclaimed  Sultan.  According  to  the 
law,  only  the  Sheik-ul-Islam  could  depose  the  Sultan,  and  his 
fetva  was  read  on  ^Monday,  April  26,  being  as  follows : 

"What  becomes  of  an  imam  (sultan)  who  has  destroyed  cer- 
tain holy  writings  and  who  has  seized  property  in  contravention 
of  the  sheri,  who  has  committed  cruelties  and  ordered  the  assassi- 
nation or  imprisonment  of  exiles  without  justification  by  the  sheri, 
who  has  squandered  the  public  money,  who  having  sworn  to 
gov^ern  according  to  the  sheriat  (holy  law),  has  violated  his  oath; 
who  by  gifts  of  money  has  provoked  internecine  bloodshed  and  civil 
war,  and  who  is  no  longer  recognized  in  the  provinces?  Answer 
of  the  sheik-ul-Tslam  :     'ITe  must  a1)dicate  or  be  deposed.'  " 

(Signed)   Zia-ed-Din,  Shiek-ul-Islam. 

The  assembly  voted  without  a  dissenting  voice  for  the  deposi- 
tion of  the  Sultan,  and  proclaimed  Mehemmed  Reshad  Effendi, 
his  successor.     For  thirty  years  the  latter  had  been  a  prisoner  in 


510d  TURKEY 

1878  1910 

the  palace,  but  in  spite  of  this  is  a  man  well  informed  on  current 
matters,  and  sufficiently  broad-gauged  to  be  the  figurehead  of 
the  leaders  who  really  rule  the  country.  The  installation  of  the 
new  Sultan  was  according  to  the  old  custom,  he  kissing  the  holy 
sword  of  Osman  I.,  the  founder  of  the  present  dynasty,  this  taking 
the  place  of  the  coronation  in  other  countries,  and  took  place  on 
May  lo,  1909. 

Following  this,  the  old  Sultan,  with  eleven  of  his  wives  and 
what  the  assembly  considered  necessary  for  the  maintenance  of 
a  comfortable  state,  was  taken  to  Salomka.  Fifty  or  more  agita- 
tors who  had  been  most  prominently  identified  with  the  opposition 
to  the  Alacedonian  movement,  were  hanged,  but  a  general  pardon 
was  issued  to  the  others,  and  the  new  party  took  charge,  promis- 
ing radical  improvements  in  every  branch  of  the  government. 
Prince  Burham-ed-Din  was  arrested  and  imprisoned.  The  $8,000,- 
000  of  treasure  belonging  to  the  Sultan  was  seized  and  used  in 
paying  the  soldiers.  Two  hours  after  the  deposing  of  Abdal 
Hamid,  the  two  houses  of  parliament  met  as  a  national  assembly, 
and  unanimously  approved  of  the  deportation.  Twefik  Pasha 
formed  a  new  ministry,  but  he  was  succeeded  by  Hilmi  Pasha, 
while  a  new  head  was  chosen  for  the  Moslem  church,  the  honor 
being  conferred  on  MoIIah  Sahib. 

The  new  Sultan  reigns  as  Mehmed  V.,  which  is  a  contraction 
of  Mohammed,  it  not  being  considered  reverent  for  the  rulers  to 
use  the  prophet's  whole  name.  The  great  work  that  lies  before 
him  and  the  leaders  of  the  Young  Turks  is  to  reconcile  the  sheriat 
or  religious  law  of  Moslem  with  modern  European  codes.  For 
the  first  time  in  Turkish  history,  Christians  are  in  the  cabinet, 
one  being  a  Greek  and  the  other  one  of  the  hitherto  hated  Arme- 
nians. Turkey  is  confronted  with  three  problems:  Arabia,  peace 
and  finance.  In  Arabia  there  is  always  trouble  with  the  fanatical 
tribes  who  revolt  upon  any  excuse,  and  have  to  be  put  down 
with  a  firm  hand.  The  Bagdad  railroad,  the  first  section  of  which 
was  opened  for  traffic  in  1904,  is  also  a  source  of  annoyance,  and 
expense.  Construction  work  has  been  delayed  on  it,  but  when 
it  is  eventually  completed  it  will  pass  through  the  very  richest 
section  of  the  Ottoman  empire.  Great  Britain  is  interested  in  this 
railroad  because  of  its  close  connection  with  the  Indian  Empire. 
Both  Germany  and  Russia  are  interested  because  of  its  connection 
with  the  Indian  Ocean  seaports.     The  country  is  burdened  with 


THE     EMPIRE     TO-DAY  510e 

1878  1910 

a  heavy  debt,  the  people  are  still  sunk  in  ignorance,  and  its  re- 
sources are  but  poorly  developed,  but  its  future  seems  assured 
by  the  character  of  the  men  who  are  the  leaders  of  the  young 
Turk  party. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The  following  is  a  list  of  the  principal  historical  and  descriptive  works  in 
English  relating  to  the  Ottoman  Empire.  For  the  convenience  of  those  who  read 
other  languages  a  few  of  the  standard  French  and  German  works  are  included 
in  the  list. 

GENERAL  HISTORIES 

Cantemir,  Paul  Demetrius. — "  History  of  the  Growth  and  Decay  of  the  Othman 
Empire."    English  translation  by  J.  Tindal,  from  an  unpublished  Latin 
manuscript.     London,  1734. 
One  of  the  earlier  works  on  Ottoman  history,  but  still  abiding  in  interest. 

Freeman,  Ed.  A. — "  The  History  and  Conquests  of  the  Saracens."  London,  1880. 
Certainly  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  possibly  still  the  most  valuable 
introduction  to  Turkish  history.  It  should  be  supplemented  by  the  same 
author's  "  The  Ottoman  Power  in  Europe." 

"  The  Ottoman  Power  in  Europe."     London,  1877. 

Freeman  discusses  Ottoman  history  and  Ottoman  character  from  the  Occi- 
dental point  of  view,  hence  the  special  value  of  this  important  work. 

Hammer-Purgstall,  F.  von. — "  Histoire  dc  I' Empire  Ottoman."    French  transla- 
tion from  the  German  by  J.  J.  Hellert.     Paris,  1835-1843.     18  vols. 
Von  Hammer's  is  the  standard  work  on  Turkish  history  and  forms  the  basis 
of  many  other  general  histories  of  the  Ottoman  Empire. 

Joncquiere,  A.  de  la. — "Histoire  dc  I'Empirc  Ottoman."     Paris,  1881. 
One  of  the  best  histories,  though  accessible  only  in  French. 

Knolles  and  Rycaut. — "  The  General  History  of  the  Turks."     London,  1603. 
Frequently  quoted  on  account  of  its  quaint  and  interesting  narrative  style. 

Lane-Poole,  Stanley. — "  The  Story  of  Turkey."     ("  Story  of  the  Nations  "  series.) 
New  York,  1888. 
A  good  short  account. 

Menzies,  Sutherland. — "  Turkey,  Old  and  New."     London,  1880.     2  vols. 
Provides  a  good  survey  of  Turkish  history  in  reasonable  compass. 

Miller,    William. — "The    Balkans."     ("Story    of    the    Nations"    series).     New 
York,  1896. 
Dealing  specifically  with  the  struggle  for  the  Balkans  and  popular  in  style. 

Zinkeisen. — "  Geschichte   dcs   Osmanischoi   Rcichcs  in  Europa."     Leipsic,    1840- 
1863.     8  vols. 
Ranks  as  a  standard  authority,  and  for  the  general  reader  is  a  better  work 
than  Von  Hammer's. 

SPECIAL  PERIODS  AND  TOPICS 

Chesney,  Col.  F.  R. — "  The  Russo-Turkish  Campaigns,  1828-1829."    New  York, 
1854.     2  vols. 
A  good  military  history. 

513 


514  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Choublier,  M. — "La  Question  d'Oricnt."    Paris,   1899. 

Valuable  and  modern,  but  the  book  has  not  yet  been  translated  into  English. 
"  Daily  News  War  Correspondence."     London,    1878. 

The  views  of  Archibald  Forbes,  J.  A.  MacGahan,  and  others  are  represented 

in  this  reprint. 
Engelhardt,  E. — "  La  Turquie  et  le  Tangirnat."    Paris.  1882.    2  vols. 

Deals   specifically   with   the   important   subject   of   Turkish   reforms   in   the 

nineteenth  century. 
Forster  and  Daniell. — "  Life  and  Letters  of  Ogier  de  Busbecq."    London,  1881.    2 
vols. 

Biographical    literature    touching   Turkish    history    is    sure    to    interest    the 

thoughtful  reader. 
Gladstone,  William  E. — "  Bulgarian  Horrors  and  the  Question  of  the  Orient." 
London,  1876. 

The  political  influence  of  the  Bulgarian  atrocities  and  their  consequences  in 

shaping  the  policy  of  Europe  make  this  subject  one  not  to  be  overlooked. 
Greene,  Francis  V. — "  The  Russian  Army  and  Its  Campaigns  in  Turkey."     New 
York,  1879.     2  vols. 

Another  valuable  military  history. 
Hawley,  Sir  Edward. — "  The  War  in  the  Crimea."     London,  1900. 

One  of  the  most  recent  contributions  to  the  literature  of  this  subject 
Herbert,  W.  V. — "  The  Defense  of  Plevna."    London,  1895. 

The  title  of  this  book  is  a  sufficient  guarantee  for  its  interest. 
Holland,  Thomas  E. — "  The  European  Concert  in  the  Eastern  Question."     Ox- 
ford, 1885. 

An  excellent  discussion  of  the   attitude  of  the   European  powers   and  the 

principle  of  intervention. 
Kinglake,  A.  W. — "  The  Invasion  of  the  Crimea."     London,  1863.     8  vols. 

The  authority  par  excellence  is  Kinglake's  detailed  work. 
Lane-Poole,    Stanley. — "The    Barbary    Corsairs."      ("Story    of    the    Nations" 
series).     New  York,  1890. 

The  naval  history  of  Turkey,  so  closely  related  to  the  exploits  of  the  Bar- 
bary Corsairs,  is  here  given  due  attention. 

"  Life  of  Stratford  Canning,  Viscount  Stratford  de  Redcliffe."     London,  1888. 

2  vols. 

A  biographical  side-light  on  Oriental  history. 
Lusignan,  Princess  Annie  de. — "  The  Twelve  Years'  Reign  of  Abdul  Hamid  II." 

A  significant  period  in  Turkish  history. 
Maxwell,  Sir  William  Stirling. — "'  Don  John  of  Austria."    London,  1883.    2  vols. 

For  the  battle  of  Lepanto  see  vol.  I. 
IMidhat,  Ali  Haydar. — "  Life  of  Midhat  Pasha."     London,  1903. 

Very  acceptable  to  the  student. 
Nama,  Mustapha. — "  Annals,  1591-1659."     English  translation  from  the  Turkish. 
London,  1832. 

Constitutes  "  source "  material,  of  which  comparatively  little  is  open  to  the 

European  reader. 
Norman,  C.  B. — "  Armenia  and  the  Campaign  of  1877."     London,  1878. 

A  contemporary  account. 
Pasha,  Valentine  Baker. — "  The  War  in  Bulgaria."     London,  1879.     2  vols. 

Valuable  as  a  "  source." 
Pears,  Edwin. — "  The  Destruction  of  Greek   Empire  and   the   Capture  of   Con- 
stantinople by  the  Turks."     London,  1903. 

Valuable  and  modern. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  515 

Prescott,  W.  H.— "History  of  Philip  II,  King  of  Spain."    Boston,  1855-1858.    3 
vols. 

This  has  an  excellent  account  of  the  battle  of  Lepanto  in  vol.  Ill,  chapters 

ix-xi. 
Roe,  Sir  Thomas. — "  Negotiations  of  Sir  Thomas  Roe."     London,  i734- 

Constitutes    one   of   the    "  sources "    and   contributes   much    interesting   and 

valuable  material  for  the  student  at  first  hand. 
Russell,  W.  H.— "The  War  in  the  Crimea."     London,  1855-1856.    2  vols. 

The  first  example  of  modern  newspaper  war  correspondence. 
Schimmer,  Karl. — "  The  Two  Sieges  of  Vienna."     English  translation  from  the 
German.     London,  1879. 

Its  vividly  descriptive  style  makes  this  volume  extremely  readable. 
Schuyler  and  MacGahan. — "  The  Turkish  Atrocities  in  Bulgaria."     London,  1856. 

This  needs  no  comment. 


TRAVEL    AND    DESCRIPTION 

Blunt,  Mrs.  John  E. — "  The  People  of  Turkey."    2  vols.    London,  1897. 
Entertaining  and  written  from  observation. 

Cuinet,  Victor. — "La  Turquie  d'Asic."     Paris,  1891-1894.     4  vols. 

Dandy,  Richard. — "The  Sultan  and  His  Subjects."     2  vols.     London,  1897. 

A  thoroughly  reliable  as  well  as  interesting  volume,  providing  the  reader 
with  many  facts  of  Ottoman  history  while  describing  present  day  conditions. 

Grosvenor,  Edwin  A. — "  Constantinople."     2  vols.     Boston,  1895. 

Constantinople,  the  city,  will  repay  special  attention.  There  are  several  excel- 
lent descriptive  works  available,  but  Grosvenor  is  perhaps  the  best  for  the 
general  reader. 

Hobhouse,  John  Cam  (Lord  Broughton). — "A  Journey  through  Albania."    Lon- 
don, 1813. 
Written  in  the  early  nineteenth  century. 

Lynch,  H.  F.  B. — "  Armenia,  Travels  and  Sketches."    2  vols.    London,  1901. 
The  Armenian   question   can   hardly  be   properly   considered   without   some 
intimate  knowledge  of  the  country  and  its  people  such  as  these  volumes  offer. 

"  Odysseus." — "  Turkey  in  Europe."     London,  1900. 
Recent,  and  therefore  has  a  special  value. 

Todleben,    General    von. — "Defense    de    Scbastopol."     St.    Petersburg,    1863.     2 
vols,   and  atlas. 
One  of  the  best,  although  there  are  various  other  brief  histories  of  the  siege 
of  Sebastopol,  including  Count  Tolstoi's  own  account. 

Ubicini,  M.  A. — "  Letters  on  Turkey."  English  translation.     London,  1856.    2  vols. 
These  letters  have  a  peculiar  interest  of  their  own. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


A 


Aali,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey:  services 

of,  439,  442 
Aali    Pasha,    Grand    Vizier    of   Turkey: 

recommends    the    Pact    of   Haleppa, 

467;  death  of,  473 
Abaza,    Governor    of    Merasch :    revolt 

of,  214;  submission  of,  220 
Abdel  Kader :  account  of,  466 
Abdul  Aziz,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign  of, 

472;  deposition  and  death,  475 
Abdul  Plamid  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey :  reign 

of,  22>7;  death  of,  355 
Abdul    Hamid    II,    Sultan    of    Turkey: 

reign  of,  478;  character  of,  489 
Abdul  Hamid   (Karazaridji)  :  revolt  of, 

208 
Abdul    Medjid,    Sultan   of   Turkey:    re- 
forms   of,    96;    accession    of,    437; 

reign  of,  439 ",  death  of,  472 
Abdullah    Ibn    Saud:    last   emir   of   the 

Wahabites,   409 
Aberdeen,   Lord :   policy  toward   Russia, 

447;  his  ministry  resigns,  458 
Aboukir:  battle  of  (1799),  383 
Acre:    sieges    of    (1832),    433;    (1840), 

437 
Adair,  Sir  Robert :  concludes  Treaty  of 

the  Dardanelles  (1809),  405 
Aden  :  captured  by  Turks,  164 
Adorno :  aids  Mustapha,  58 
Adrianople :  captured   (1361),  29 
Adrianople,  Treaty  of   (1829),  431 
Africa,   North :   reduced  by  Arabs,  4 
Ahmed    I,   Sultan   of  Turkey:   reign   of, 

209;  death  of,  212 
Ahmed   TI,   Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign  of, 

260 :  death  of,  261 
Ahmed  III,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign  of, 

273 ;  abdicates,  293 
Ahmed,  son  of  Bayezid  II :  intrigues  for 
the     succession,     115;     resists     sov- 
ereignty of  the  Sultan.  120 


Ahmed  Fevzy :  treachery  of,  436 

Ahmed  Kediik,  Turkish  captain :  sub- 
jugates the  Crimea,  84;  his  cam- 
paign in  Italy,  86,  113 

Ahmed  Kiuprili :  see  Kiuprili,  Ahmed 

Ahmed  Pasha,  Governor  of  Egypt :  re- 
volt of,  150 

Aidian :  reinstated  by  Timur,  52 

Akbar  the  Great:  contemporary  of 
Suleiman,   145 

Akerman,  Treaty  of  (1826)  :  account  of, 
422;  as  cause  for  Russo-Turkish 
war,  426;  convention  confirmed  by 
Treaty  of  Adrianople,  432 

Alaeddin,  Sultan  of  Iconium :  aided  by 
Ertoghrul,  9 

Alaeddin,  son  of  Othman  I :  becomes 
vizier  of  Orkhan,  19 

Albanian  League,  492 

Aleppo:  battle  of  (1516),  129 

Alexander  VI  (Rodrigo  Borgia),  Pope: 
his  connection  with  the  custody  of 
Prince  Djem,  112 

Alexander  the  Great :  conquers  western 
Asia,  3 

Alexander  I,  Emperor  of  Russia :  sup- 
ports Prussia  against  France,  396; 
in  the  Peace  of  Tilsit ,  403 ;  suc- 
ceeded by  Nicholas  I,  422 

Alexander  II,  Emperor  of  Russia:  ac- 
cession of,  458;  liberal  policy  of, 
473 ;  in  Russo-Turkish  war,  482 

Alexander  III,  Emperor  of  Russia: 
death  of,  495 

Alexander  Karageorgcvitch,  Prince:  be- 
comes prince  of  Servia,  443 ;  de- 
posed, 465 

Alexander  of  Battenburg:  account  of, 
492 ;  defeats  Servians  at  Slivinitza, 
494 

Alexander,  Lord :  see  Scanderbeg 

Alexandria:  taken  by  the  French  (1798), 
380;  bombarded   (1882),  496 

Alexis    Mikhaiovich,    Czar    of    Russia: 


519 


620 


INDEX 


disclaims  responsibility  over  the 
Cossacks,  229 

Algiers:  taken  by  Khaireddin  Barba- 
rossa,  161 ;  taken  by  the  French 
(1830),  432 

Ali  Beg  Widaitsh:  allies  with  dahis  of 
Belgrade,  388,  390 

Ali  Kumurgi:  see  Damad  Ali 

Ali  Moldowandji,  Grand  Vizier  of  Tur- 
key :     succeeds    Emin    Mohammed, 

324  _ 

Ali  Pasha,  Turkish  general :  campaign  in 

Bulgaria,  34 
Ali  Pasha,  despot  of  Epirus :  wins  cities 

from  the  French,  384;  at  war  with 

Turkey,  414 
Alp  Arslan :   Seljukian  power  under,  10 
Alma  River:   battle  of    (1854),  455 
Amassia :  annexed  by  Bayezid,  38 
Amurath :  see  Murad 
Anatolia :  stronghold  of  modern  Turks, 

24 
Andrassy,   Count:    at   Berlin    Congress, 

Andronicus,  Emperor:  his  relations  with 

Ottomans,  24 
Andrusshovo,  Truce  of  (1667),  244 
Anne  Ivanovna,  Empress  of  Russia ;  re- 
news war  with  Turkey,  300;  adopts 
Oriental  Project,  313 
Angora:  battle  of  (1402),  37,  48 
Arabia :  rise  of  the  Arabs,  3,  4 ;  impor- 
tance  of   holy    cities   of,    135 ;    con- 
quered by  the  Turks,  136,  164;  dis- 
orders in,  195,  292 
Arbuthnot :   British  minister  to  Turkey, 

397 

Armenia:  Turkish  conquests  in,  158;  de- 
scription of,  497 

Army  and  Navy:  first  standing  army  of 
modern  history  introduced  by  Turks, 
19;  navy  improved  by  Selim  I  of 
Turkey,  136;  strength  under  Sulei- 
man the  Great,  148,  182;  under  Mo- 
hammed IV  of  Turkey,  239;  esti'- 
mate  of  Ottoman  military  service, 
242 ;  decline  of  the  navy,  252 ;  naval 
strength  under  Mustapha  III  of 
Turkey,  327 ;  plans  of  Gazi  Hassan 
respecting,  342;  Selim  III  attempts 
to  improve,  378 ;  demoralization  of, 
under    Selim    III    of    Turkey,   370; 


Mahmud  II  reorganizes,  417,  440; 
present  status,  509;  see  also  Janis- 
saries 

Arnaud,  Vincent:  befriends  Topal  Os- 
man,  296 

Asia  Minor :  becomes  an  integral  part  of 
Europe,  3 

Astrakhan:  siege  of  (1554),  193 

Athens :  taken  by  Bayezid,  45 ;  sur- 
renders to  Turks   (1827),  417 

Aubusson,  Pierre  d'.  Grand  Master  of 
Knights  of  St.  John:  account  of,  109 

Austria :  her  relation  to  the  Eastern 
Question,  7;  in  the  Holy  Alliance, 
41 ;  invaded  by  Suleiman  the  Great, 
152,  175;  Murad  III  at  war  with, 
202;  campaigns  of  Ahmed  Kiuprili 
in,  236;  campaigns  of  Damad  Ali  in, 
286 ;  in  Treaty  of  Passarowitz,  291 ; 
intervention  in  Russo-Turkish  war, 
307;  attacks  Turkey,  310;  signs 
secret  convention  with  Turkey 
('^77''^) y  332;  at  war  with  France, 
406;  in  agreement  of  the  Dar- 
danelles, 437 ;  hostile  to  Russia,  487 

Austrian  Succession,  War  of,  318 

Avars :  invasion  of,  4 

Azov:  sieges  of  (1641),  228;  (1696), 
266;  threatened  by  Russia,  302 


B 


Babaeska:  battle  of  (1807),  399 
Bagdad :    conquered    by    Suleiman    the 
Great,    158;    adorned    by    Suleiman, 
188;  sieges  of  (1638),  221;   (1733), 

295 
Baharites :  first  Mameluke  sovereign  of 

Egypt,  128 
Bairactar:  becomes  grand  vizier,  401 
Bajazet:     see  Bayezid 
Bakchiserai :      sacked     by     the      Turks 

(1736),  305;  Russians  in,  350 
Balkan,  The,  62 
Balta:  siege  of  (1768),  321 
Baltadji  Mohammed  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier 

of  Turkey :  account  of,  279 
Barbaresque  Regencies:  growth  of,  252; 

relation  to  Turkey,  365 
Barbarossa,  Khaireddin :  account  of,  161 


INDEX 


521 


Batlin:  Turkish  defeat  at  (1810),  406 

Bayezid  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey :  account  of, 
31;  at  battle  of  Kosovo,  35;  acces- 
sion of,  36;  assumes  title  of  Sultan, 
38 ;  death  of,  50 ;  his  tomb  desecrated 
by  Mohammed  I,  of  Turkey,  55 

Bayezid  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign  of, 
107;  death  of,  117 

Bayezid  Pasha :  account  of,  56,  58 

Beirut:  siege  of  (1840),  437 

Belgrade:  sieges  of  (1456),  82;  (1521), 
147;  (1688),  256;  (1691),  260; 
(1717),  289;  attacked  by  Austria, 
352 

Belgrade,  Treaty  of  (1739)  :  account  of, 
315,  374 

Bender:  siege  of  (1770),  329 

Berghama  (Pergamus)  :  annexed  by 
Orkhan,  23 

Berkuk :  first  of  Circassian  Mamelukes 
in  Egypt,  128 

Berlin,  Congress  of  (1878)  :  account  of, 
487 

Berlin,  Treaty  of  (1878)  :  account  of, 
488,  491 ;  provides  reforms  in  Ar- 
menia, 4q8 

Beylan:  battle  of  (1832),  434 

Bismarck,  Otto  Edward  Leopold,  Prince 
von :  his  attitude  toward  the  Eastern 
Question,  487 

Boniface  IX,  Pope :  proclaims  crusade 
against  Turks,  39 

Bosnia :  attacked  by  Bayezid,  37 ;  recon- 
.quered  by  Turks,  68;  made  Turkish 
"province,  82 

Bourmont,  Marshal :  his  Algerian  ex- 
pedition, 433 

Braila :  siege  of  (1828),  427 

Brancovan,  Prince,  Hospodar  of  Wal- 
lachia :   intrigues  with  Russia,  278 

Bredal,  Russian  admiral :  commands  tleet 
in  Black  Sea,  309 

Broughton,  Lord :  his  account  of  tlu' 
revolutions  (1807-1809),  403    note 

Brusa:  desired  by  the  Turks,  15,  17; 
made  Bayezid's  capital,  45 ;  sacked 
by  Timur,  51 

Bucharest,  Treaty  of  (1812)  :  account  of. 
398,  407;  ratified  by  Treaty  of  Akcr- 
man,  422 

Buda-Pfstli :  twin  cities  taken  by  Sulei- 
man the  Great,  152 


Bulgaria:  annexed  to  Ottoman  Empire, 
34;  account  of  troubles  in,  476 

Busacz,  Peace  of  (1672),  245 

Byzantine  Empire :  its  struggle  against 
Arab  and  Turk,  4 


Cairo:  taken  by  Selim  I   of  Turkey,  131 
Calderan :  battle  of,  i^S 
Caliphate:  acquired  by  the  sultans,  135 
Calixtus  III,  Pope :  aids  Hunyady,  83 
Calmucks :  migrate  from  Russia,  338 
Campo  Formio,  Treaty  of  (1797),  384 
Candia    (Crete),   War   of:    account   of, 

230 
Candia,  capital  of  Crete:  threatened  by 
Turks,     242;     siege     and     capture 
(1669),  243 
Canning,    Stratford,   Viscount    Stratford 
de  RedcIifTe:  his  influence  as  Eng- 
lish  ambassador,  439,  443,  449;   re- 
called, 446 
Cantacuzene,  Emperor:  recognizes  power 

of  Orkhan,  25 
Cantemia,    Prince,    Hospodar    of    ]Mol- 

davia:  aids  Russia,  278 
Capistran,  St.  John :  aids  Hunyady,  83 
Caramania:  resists  Ottoman  Turks,  16; 
submits    to    Bayezid,    38;    reinstated 
by  Timur,  52 ;   reduced  by  Bayezid 
Pasha,   56;    insurrection   in,   61,   62; 
subdued,  84 
Carlowitz,     Peace    of     (1609)  :    account 

of,  268,  374;  broken,  287 
Castriot,  John :  account  of,  6g 
Castriot,  George:     see  Scanderbeg 
Catherine  I,  Empress  of  Russia :  secures 
peace    with    Turkey,    280 ;    honored 
by  Peter  the  Great,  282 
Catherine  II,  Empress  of  Russia :  her  re- 
lations with  Turkey,  320 
Caulaincourt,    Armand    Augustin    Louis 

de :  minister  of  Napoleon,  404 
Cavour,     Count    di :     diplomacy     of,     in 

Crimean  War,  459 
Cerestes :  battle  of  (1596),  206,  239 
Cervantes   Saavedra,   Miguel   de,   author 
of    "Don    Quixote":    at    the    battle 
of  Lepanto,  198 
Chalcondylas,  Demetrius :  his  estimate  of 
Turkish  military  strengtli,  94 


622 


INDEX 


Chalons:  battle  of  (451  a.  d.),  4 

Chamurli :  battle  of,  53 

Charles  VIII,  King  of  France:  transfers 
Prince  Djcin  to  custody  of  the  Pope, 
hi;  invades  Italy,  112;  plans  rescue 
of  Constantinople,  144 

Charles  V,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  ex- 
tent of  empire  of,  145 ;  at  war  with 
Turkey,  158;  defeated  at  Algiers, 
163 

Charles  VI,  Holy  Roman  emperor :  aids 
Venice  against  Turkey,  286;  power 
in   Eastern   Europe,   292;    death   of, 

317 

Charles  XII,  King  of  Sweden :  at  war 
with  Russia,  274;  terms  of  Peace  of 
Pruth  respecting,  281,  284 

Charles  VI,  King  of  France :  contem- 
porary of  Murad  I  of  Turkey,  33 

Charles  I,  King  of  Rumania :  account 
of,  464 

Charles  Martel :  saves  Europe  from 
Saracens,  4 

Chateauneuf,  Marquis  de :  his  embassy 
to  Constantinople,  259 

China :  Timur  extends  power  in,  46 

Chotim :  siege  of  (1739),  314 

Christendom  :  division  of,  7 

Christians  in  Turkey:  protection  of,  269, 
340,  442,  470;  their  disputes  in 
Palestine,  445 ;  massacred  in  Syria, 
466;  revolt  of,  474;  their  condition 
in  Armenia,  497 

Cicala  Pasha :  account  of,  206,  207,  208 

Circassians  (Tchercassians)  :  right  of 
dominion  over,  292 

Colonna,  Marc :  commands  papal  squad- 
ron, 196 

Commerce :  opened  with  western  Eu- 
rope, 202 ;  protected  by  Peace  of 
Pruth,  281 

Constantine  XI  (Constantine  XITI), 
Byzantine  emperor :  account  of, 
72 

Constantine,  Grand  Duke :  account  of, 
345,  358,  361,  362 

Constantinople :  defended  from  Arabs, 
4 ;  captured  by  crusaders,  5 ;  men- 
aced by  Bayezid,  45;  Turkish  sieges 
of  (1422).  58;  (1453),  75,  82; 
cliurches  of,  converted  to  mosques 
by    Selim,    139;    adorned    by    Sulei- 


man the  Great,  187;  visited  by 
plague  (1637),  220;  ravaged  by  fire 
(1693),  261 ;  Russia's  designs  on,  345, 
357,  362 

Constantinople,  Aqueduct  of,  188 

Cordovo,  Gonsalvo  Hernandez  de: 
serves  as  military  model  for  Europe, 
144 

Corinth:  siege  of  (1715),  286 

Cossacks :  marauding  expeditions  of, 
215 ;  rival  claims  for  dominion  over, 
244 

Courcy,  Sire  de :  at  battle  of  Nicopolis, 
41 

Couza,  Alexander :  account  of,  464 

Crescent,  Device  of  the,  11 

Crete  (Candia)  :  account  of,  466;  re- 
volts from  Turkey,  502.  See  also 
Candia 

Crimea:  invaded  by  Miinnich  (1736), 
302 ;  annexed  to  Russia,  345 

Crimean  War :  diplomatic  preliminaries, 
443;  outbreak  of  hostilities,  451 

Croia :  seized  by  Scanderbeg,  69 

Crusades,  The,  4 

Cyprus :  conquered,  195 

Czernowitz :  Swedish  loss  at,  275 

Czerny,  George  (Kara  George),  origi- 
nally George  Petrovich :  leads  rising 
against  the  Turks,  389;  completes 
Servia's  independence,  395;  fails  in 
Bosnia,  403;  deserts  Servia,  410; 
assassinated,  411 


D 


Damascus :  taken  by  Selim  I  of  Turkey, 
130 ;  adorned  by  Suleiman  the 
Great,  188 

Damid  AH  (AH  Kumurgi),  Grand 
Vizier  of  Turkey  :  account  of,  285 

Dardanelles :   control   of,  437 

De   Lesseps.   Ferdinand :    sketch   of,   468 

Denmark:  alHed  with  Russia,  322;  with- 
draws  support  from  Russia,  360 

De   Romanov:   minister   for  Russia,  404 

Dervishes,   Revolt  of  the,  57 

Devlet  Ghirai,  Khan  of  Crimea :  urges 
war  upon   Russia,  276 

Devlet  Ghirai.  successor  of  Krim  Ghirai, 
account  of,  323,  345 


INDEX 


523 


Diebitsch  Sabalkansgi:  crosses  the 
Balkan,  62;  in  Russo-Turkish  war, 
428 

Disraeli,  Benjamin:  effect  of  Bulgarian 
massacres  on  policy  of,  447 ;  his 
view  of  the  Treaty  of  San  Stefano, 

487 

Divan,  The,  369 

Djem,  Prince:  account  of,  107;  buried 
at  Brusa,  113 

Djezzar  Pasha:  rebellion  of,  366;  com- 
mands Syrian  forces  against  France, 
381 ;  returns  to  insubordination,  386 

Djouneid,  Ottoman  governor:  revolt  of, 

55 
Djunis:  battle  of  (1876),  478 
Domokos:    Greeks    defeated    at    (1897), 

505 
Doria,   Andrea:    Genoese   admiral,    162; 

encounters  Turkish  admirals,  165 
Dragut   or   Torghud :    Turkish   admiral, 

165 ;    in    expedition    against    Malta, 

171 
Drakul,     Prince     of     Wallachia:     joins 

against  the  Turks,  65 
Duckworth,   Admiral :   destroys  Turkish 

fleet,  397 


Eastern  Question,  The :  account  of,  3 

Ebu  Bekir:  sent  to  control  Janissaries, 
387 

Education:  zeal  of  Mohammed  IT  re- 
specting, 98;  encouraged  by  Selim 
III  of  Turkey,  377 

Egypt :  reduced  by  Arabs,  4 ;  Timur's 
attack  on  empire  of,  48;  Prince 
Djem  aided  by,  108,  112;  wars  with, 
114;  subdued  by  the  Turks,  133; 
disorders  in,  292,  326;  JNIamelukes 
rebel  in,  344;  wrested  from  France, 
384;  English  expedition  against, 
398;   Turko-h'gyptian  war,  437 

El  Arisch :  taken  b}'  Napoleon,  382 

Elhadj  Mohammed  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier 
of  Turkey:  account  of,  314 

F.lizaboth,  Quceu  of  England,  seeks 
aid   of  Turkey,  202 

Ellis,  Edward:  English  merchant  sent 
to  Constantinople,  202 


Elwas  Mohammed,  Grand  Vizier  of 
Turkey:  unpopularity  of,  262 

Emin  Mohammed,  Grand  Vizier  of 
Turkey :  recalled,  324 

Ems:  battle  of  (1832),  434 

England :  her  relations  with  Turkey,  7, 
160,  202;  intervention  of,  267,  284, 
290,  299,  347,  423;  attitude  toward 
Russia,  358,  360,  361 ;  allied  with 
Russia,  322;  joins  triple  alliance 
(1788),  360;  allies  against  France, 
3S0;  refuses  aid  to  the  Sultan,  435; 
in  agreement  of  the  Dardanelles, 
437;  hostile  to  Russia,  487 

Erlan:    taken    by    imperialists     (1687), 

Erizzo,   Paul:   Venetian   commander,  84 
Ertoghrul,  founder  of  Ottoman  Empire : 
leads    band    of    Oghuz    Turks    into 
Asia  Minor,  9;  compared  to  Sulei- 
man the  Great,  180 
Ertoghrul,  son  of  Bayezid :  account  of, 

45 
Ethnike     Hetairia:     adopts     cause     of 

Crete,  503,  504 
Eubcca,  Island  of:  captured  by  Turks,  84 
Eugene,  Prince:  leads  Austrians  against 

the  Turks,  286,  287 
Eugenius,  Pope :  aids  crusades,  62,  65 
Eupatoria:  battle  of  (1855),  45^ 
Europe :    civilization   of,   extended    east- 
ward, 3 
Eviiya,  Turkish  historian:  quoted,  215 


Fanariote  Period,  The,  294 

Ferdinand  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor : 
claims  crown  of  Hungary,  152; 
seeks  peace  with  Turkey,  159 

Ferdinand  of  Saxe-Coburg.  Prince  of 
Bulgaria :  account  of,  495 

Feth  Ghirai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea:  v.ins 
victories  over  Russians,  307 

Feudalism :  its  relation  to  Turkish  in- 
stitutions, 96,  184,  203,  368,  yj-/ 

Feuilladc,  Due  de  la:  at  battle  of  St. 
Gnthard,    240;    at    siege    of    Candia, 

243 
Finances:     stability     of,     under     Abdul 
Hamid,   491 


524 


INDEX 


France :  in  relation  to  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion, 7;  foreign  conquests  of,  143; 
intervention  of,  307,  347.  423; 
Turkey  seeks  alliance  with,  332 ; 
revolution  in.  361 ;  at  war  with  Tur- 
key, 380;  friendly  policy  toward 
Turkey  revived,  385;  rivalry  with 
Russia,  392,  444.  445;  in  Peace  of 
Tilsit,  404;  in  agreement  of  the 
Dardanelles,  437 

Francis  I,  King  of  I'rance :  contemporary 
of  Suleiman  the  Great,  145,  159; 
urges  the   Sultan  against  Hungary, 

Francis  Joseph  I,  Emperor  of  Austria: 
dominated  by  Nicholas  I  of  Rus- 
sia, 444 

Franco-Prussian  War,  473 

Frederick  II,  King  of  Prussia:  effects 
treaty  with  Turkey,  319;  concludes 
treaty  with  Russia,  320;  ridicules 
Russian  generalship,  324;  offers 
mediation,  332 

Frederick  William  III,  King  of  Prussia: 
makes  war  against  France,  396 

Frederick  William  IV,  King  of  Prussia : 
his  relation  to  Nicholas  I  of  Russia, 

444 

Froissart's  Chronicles,  43 

Fuad,  Grand  Vizier  of  Abdul  Med j id: 
services  of,  439,  442 

Fuad  Pasha :  resigns  as  foreign  minis- 
ter, 449;  sent  to  Damascus,  446; 
policy  toward  Crete,  467;  accom- 
panies Abdul  Aziz  to  Paris  Exposi- 
tion, 472 


G 


Galatz:  massacre  in,  416 
Galitzin,     Prince     Alexander     Michailo- 
vitch :     commands     Russian     forces, 

324 
Gallipoli:  captured  by  the  Turks  (1356), 

27 
Gaza:  taken  by  Napoleon   (1799),  382 
Gazi  Hassan,  Capudan  Paslia:  plans  re- 
organization     of      Turkish      forces, 
342;  policy  of,  350;  commands  Turk- 
ish  army,   356;    death   of,   357;    his 


tmsuccessful  efforts  to  improve  the 
navy,  372 
Genghis   Khan :   ancestor  of  Timur  the 

Great,  46 
Genoa,  Republic  of:  at  war  with  Venice, 
25 ;  aids  the  Turks,  64 ;  at  war  with 
Turkey,  84 
George     Brankovic:     succeeds    Stephen 

Laserovic,  60 
George    Castriot :      See    Scanderbeg 
George  Pctrovich :    See  Czerny,  George 
Germany :  relation  to  the  Eastern  Ques- 
tion,  7;    neutrality    in    Berlin    Con- 
gress, 487;  becomes  ally  of  Turkey, 
505,  508 
Ghazali,  Governor  of  Syria:  crushed  by 

Suleiman  the  Great,  146 
Giurgevo:  battle  of  (1790),  357 
Giustiniani,  John :   Genoese  commander, 

74.  76 

Gonsalvo  Hernandez  de  Cordova :  See 
Cordova,  Gonsalvo  Hernandes  de 

Gorchakov,  Prince :  proclaims  abroga- 
tion of  Treaty  of  Paris,  473 ;  at  Ber- 
lin Congress,  487 

Government:  political  institutions  of 
Turkey,  88;  municipal  government, 
97;  condition  in  the  Danubian  prin- 
cipalities, 293 ;  condition  under 
Selim  III  of  Turkey,  364 

Greco-Turkish  War :  account  of,  504 

"  Greek  Fire,"  The,  76 

Greece :  Bayezid  leads  attack  on,  45 ;  in 
Treaty  of  Adrianople,  432;  supports 
Cretan  revolt  from  Turkey,  503. 
See  also  Greek  War  of  Independ- 
ence 

Greek  War  of  Independence :  account  of, 

411 
Greig,  Admiral :  in  Russo-Turkish  war, 

429 
Guillemot,  General :  negotiates  truce  of 

Slobosia,  403 
Guizot,      Frangois      Pierre      Guillaume: 

ministry  of,  437 


H 


Hadji  Bcytarch  :  Ottoman  dervish,  21 
Hadji     Mustapha :     becomes     Pasha     of 
Belgrade,  387 


INDEX 


525 


Hafiz   Pasha,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey: 

account  of,  216 
Hague,  The,  Congress  of   (1790),  360 
Haleppa,    Pact    of    ( 1867)  :    account   of, 

467,  502 
Harebone,    William :    English   merchant 

sent    to    Constantinople,    202 
Hatti  Humaiun,  The,  471 
Heliopolis:  battle  of  (1800),  384 
Henry  VHT,  King  of  England:  contem- 
porary of   Suleiman  the  Great,    145 
Heraclius  of  Georgia    (Czar  of  Tiflis)  : 

account  of,  362 
Hermanstadt:  siege  of  (1442),  61 
Herodotus :  his  recognition  of  the  East- 
ern Question,  3 
Hetsria  Philike :  account  of,  413 
Hobhouse,  John  Cam,  Lord  Broughton: 

his  description  of  Albania,  368 
Holland:    joins    in    European    interven- 
tion, 267,  284,  290,  299;  joins  triple 
alliance  (1788),  360 
Holy  Alliance,  War  of  the :  account  of, 

255 

Hungary:  invaded  by  Tartars,  4;  men- 
aced by  Murad,  30;  attacked  by 
Bayezid,  2,7;  devastated,  45;  at  war 
with  Turkey,  147,  151;  acquired  by 
Suleiman  the  Great,  159;  recovered 
from  Turkey,  291 

Huns :  menace  western  civilization,  4 

Hunyady  the  Great:  origin  of,  38;  ac- 
count of,  60;  death  of,  84 

Hussein  Avni:  account  of,  475 


Ibrahim,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  preserved 
from  death,  224;  accession  of,  225; 
deposed,  227;  put  to  death,  228 

Ibrahim,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey  (1523- 
1535)'  sent  to  Egypt,  150;  account 
of,  166;  wealth  of,  confiscated.  184 

Ibrahim,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey  (1718- 
1730),  account  of,  292 

Ibrahim  of  Aleppo,  Ottoman  jurist: 
compiles  Ottoman  code,  187 

Ibrahim  Pasha:  son  of  IMohammed  Ali, 
409;  his  campaign  against  the 
Greeks,  417;  aids  Mohammed  Ali  in 
rebellion,  433 


Ibrahim  the  Devil  (Kara  Djehennin)  : 
commands  artillery  against  the 
Janissaries,  419 

Iconium :  battle  of  (1387),  31 

Idris.  Turkish  historian :  favored  by 
Selim  I,  119 

Ignatiev,  Count:  influence  of,  474 

India :  Turkish  conquests  in,   164 

Innocent  VIII,  Pope:  receives  Prince 
Djem,  III 

Ionian  Islands :  guardianship  of,  384 

Ipsilanti,  Alexander:  incites  Greeks  to 
arms,  416 

Ipsilanti,  Constantine :  deposed  as  hos- 
podar,  396 

Iskanderbeg:    See  Scanderbeg 

Islam  Ghirai,  Khan  of  Crimea :  account 
of,  230 

Ismail:  siege  of  (1790),  359 

Ismail,  Shah  of  Persia :  aids  Korkud 
and  Ahmed,  115,  120;  founder  of 
Safawi  dynasty,  122 ;  at  war  with 
Turkey,  123,  147;  restorer  and  legis- 
lator of   Persia,   145 

Ismail  Pasha,  Viceroy  of  Egypt :  opens 
Suez  canal,  469 ;  extravagance  of, 
496;   deposed,  496 

Italinski,  Russian  ambassador :  his  de- 
mands on  Turkey,  393,  395 

Italy :  relation  to  the  Eastern  Question, 
7;  jMohammed  projects  subjugation 
of,  85;  Turks  driven  from,  113 

Ivan  (III)  the  Great,  Grand  Prince  of 
Russia:  opens  relations  with  Tur- 
key, 117;  frees  Moscow  from  the 
Tartars,  192 

Ivan  (IV)  the  Terrible,  Czar  of  Russia: 
reign  of,  192 


Jaffa:  taken  by  Napoleon,  382 

Janissaries  (Yerri  Tscheri)  :  instituted 
by  Alaeddin,  19;  recruited  from  con- 
q'jered  Christians,  32;  condition 
under  Mohammed  II,  93;  tyranny 
and  turbulence  of,  120,  150,  203,  212, 
293.  3S6,  394;  at  siege  of  Vienna, 
156;  under  Suleiman  the  Great, 
183;  Mohammed  IV  reorganizes, 
251;   destruction  of,  417 


526 


INDEX 


J.Tssy:  massacre  in,  416 

Jassy,  Treaty  of  (1792)  :  account  of,  362, 

374 
Jerusalem:      capitulation      granted     by 

Omar    (637   a.   d.),    100;    taken   by 

Selim  I  (1516),  130 
John  of  Austria,  Don :  heads  maritime 

league,  196;  captures  Tunis,  200 
John  Castriot:    See  Castriot,  John 
John    (III)    Sobieski,   King  of   Poland: 

account  of,  6,  248;  campaign  against 

the  Cossacks,  244 
Joseph  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  offers 

mediation,  332;   allied   with   Russia, 

348;   declares  war  on  Turkey,  352; 

death  of,  357 
Julian,  Cardinal :  in  crusade  against  the 

Turks,  62,  65,  66;  death  of,  68 


K 


Kaffa:  taken  by  Turks   (1456),  84 
Kainardji,  Peace  of   (1774),  account  of, 

339,  342,  374 
Kaminiets:  siege  of  (1672),  245 
Kanounname,  The,  8g 
Kansu    Ghawri,    Sultan    of    Egypt:    at 

war  with  Turkey,  129 
Kaplan    Ghirai,    Khan    of    the    Crimea: 

deposed,  307;   collects   Tartar  host, 

329  _ 

Kara     Djehennin:       See     Ibrahim    the 

Devil 
Kara  George :    See  Czerny  George 
Kara  Mustapha,  Grand  Vizier  of  Ibra- 
him: account  of,  226 
Kara   Mustapha,   Grand   Vizier  of   Mo- 
hammed IV:   account  of,  247 
Kara    Theodori    Beg:    at    Berlin    Con- 
gress, 487 
Karasi :  conquest  of,  23 
Kars:  storming  of  (1877),  484 
Kastcmouni :   annexed  by   Bayezid,   38 
Kaundjik:    Turkish    defeat    at    (1444), 

65 
Kavarna :    taken    from    Turkey    (1444), 

65 
Kayounhissar    (Baphoeum)  :    battle    of 
(1301),  17 


Kemal  Reis :  first  great  Turkish  admiral, 
113 

Kernel  Pasha  Zade,  Turkish  jurist: 
favored  by  Selim  I,  119 

Kermian :  reinstated  by  Timur,  52 

Khaireddin  Pasha:  See  Barbarossa, 
Khaireddin 

Khaireddin,  Turkish  commander:  suc- 
ceeds Ahmed  Kediik,  113 

Khalil  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey: 
account  of,  329 

Khurrem  ("La  Rossa"):  her  influence 
over  Suleiman  I,  167 

Kinsky,  Count:  Austrian  minister,  268 

Kiuprili  Ahmed,  Grand  Vizier  of  Tur- 
key :  appointed,  235 ;  estimate  of, 
246 

Kiuprili,  Husein  (Amud  Shah  Zade), 
Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey :  account  of, 
264 ;  retirement  and  death,  273 

Kiuprili  Mohammed,  Grand  Vizier  of 
Turkey :  account  of,  232 

Kiuprili  Zade  Mustapha,  Grand  Vizier 
of  Turkey:  account  of,  257;  death 
of,  261 

Kleber,  Jean  Baptiste :  commands 
French  forces  in  Egypt,  383 

Knights  of  St.  John:  See  St.  John, 
Knights  of 

Kceprihissar :  fall  of  (1300),  17 

Konieh:   battle   of    (1832),   434 

Koran:  Murad's  vizier  seeks  guide  from, 
35 ;  as  primary  source  of  Turkish 
law,  89;  teachings  of,  99,  104,  139 

Korkud,  son  of  Bayezid  II :  intrigues 
for  sovereignty,  115;  slain  by  Selim 
I  of  Turkey,  121 

Kosciusko,  Tadensz:  his  reforms  in  Po- 
land, 362 

Koslov:  sacked  by  the  Russians  (1736), 

305 
Kosovo:  battle  of  (1389),  29,  34 
Kossuth,  Louis :  takes  refuge  in  Turkey, 

443 
Kotchi,    Beg,    Turkish    writer :    quoted, 

189 
Kozlidje:  battle  of  (1774),  338 
Krim  Ghirai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea :  dev- 
astates southern  Russia,  323 
Krotzka:  battle  of   (17.39),  314 
Kulevtcha:  battle  of  (1829),  428 
Kumans :  invasion  of,  4 


INDEX 


527 


Kurt  Beg,  Mameluke  hero:  at  battle  of 
Ridania,  130;  his  audience  with 
Selim  I  of  Turkey,  131 

Kutchuk  Kainardji,  Treaty  of  (1774)  : 
status  of  Orthodox  Christians  un- 
der, 446 


Lacy,  Peter,  Russiarl  general:  campaigns 

in  the  Crimea,  308,  312 
Ladislaus,  King  of  Poland :  account  of, 

61,   62;    resists   breaking   of   treaty, 

65;  slain  at  Varna,  67 
Lalashahin :   commands   Ottoman   forces 

at  Maritza,  30 
Lambro  Canzani,  Greek  patriot:  account 

of,  358 
La  Marmora,  General :  in  the  Crimean 

War,  458 
Laudon,    Marshal:    commands   Austrian 

forces,  356 
La  Vallette,  John  de  la,  Grand  Master 

of  the  Knights  of  St.  John :  defends 

Malta,  170,  172 
Law :      See  Mohammedan  Law 
Lazarus,    King    of    Servia:    account    of 

34,  36 
League  of  the  Three  Emperors,  474 
Leniberg:  sieges  of  (1672),  245;  (1675), 

245 

Lcmnos:  siege  of  (1770),  328 

Leo  (III)  the  Isaurian :  defends  Con- 
stantinople,  4 

Leo  X,  Pope :  contemporary  of  Sulei- 
man the  Great,  145 

Leopold  I,  Holy  Roman  emperor :  at 
war  with  Turkey,  266 

Leopold  II,  Holy  Roman  emperor:  de- 
sires peace  with  Turkey,  357 

Lepanto:  battle  of  (1571),  5,  196;  ac- 
quired by   Turks,   113 

Literature  and  Art:  under  Suleiman  the 
Great,  188:  encouraged  by  Moham- 
med IV  of  Turkey,  253;  by  Ahmed 
HI  of  Turkey,  293;  by  Selim  HI 
of  Turkey,  412 

Livonia :  conquered  by  Peter  tlie  Great, 
278 

London,  Treaty  of  (1827)  :  account 
of,  423 


Louis  II,  King  of  Hungary :  account  of, 

147 

Louis  XIV,  King  of  France:  encour- 
ages hostility  of  Turkey  against 
Austria,  259 

Louis  XVI,  King  of  France:  urges  Eu- 
ropean  intervention  against  Russia, 

347,  349 
Lovtcha:  battle  of  (1877),  482 


M 


Macedonian  Question,  The,  506 
Magyars :      aid     Slavs    against    Turks, 

Mahmud  T,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  accession, 

293;  reign  of,  295;  death  of,  318 
Mahmud    II,     Sultan    of    Turkey:     in- 
structed by  Selim  III,  40a ;  reign  of, 

408;    death    of,    436;    reforms    of, 

439 
Mahmud,    Prince,    son    of    Mohammed 

HI :  put  to  death,  209 
Mahmud  Tchelebi :   ransomed,  63 
Mahmud,  titular  khan  of  Jagetai :  takes 

Bayezid  prisoner,  50 
Malkhatoon :   wooed  by  Othman,    12 
Malta :   expedition  against,    170 
Mamelukes    (Memlooks)  :    dominion    in 

Egypt,    127 ;    rebellion   of,   344,  365 ; 

Napoleon  makes  war  on,  380;  resist 

control  of  Selim  HI  of  Turkey,  386; 

destroyed  by  Mohammed  Ali,  408 
Maritza:   battle  of    (1363),  30 
Mavrocordato,      Greek      diplomat:      at 

Peace  of  Carlowitz,  269 
Maximilian    II,   Holy   Roman   emperor: 

account  of,  175,  191 
Maximilian,     Archduke:     at    war    with 

Mohammed     III     of    Turkey,     205, 

206 
Mecca,     holy     city:     visited     by     Prince 

Djem,   108;  captured  by  Wahabitcs, 

385 ;   recovered,  409 
Mecca,  Aqueducts  of,  188 
Medina,    holy    city:    visited    by    Prince 

Djem,   108;  captured  by  Wahabites, 

3S5 ;   recovered,   400 
Mehadia:  battle  of  (1788^  354 
Melek  Sliah :  Seljukian  Turks  powerful 

imder,   10 


528 


INDEX 


Menschikov,    Prince :    on   protection    of 

Greek  Church,  340;  his  ministry  to 

Turkey,  449 
Mesopotamia:     conquests     of    Suleiman 

I  in,  158 
Michael    Obrenovitch,    Prince:    account 

of,  465 
Michael  of  the  Peaked  Beard:   account 

of,  13 
Michael   Beg:   commands   Ahindji,   58 
Michael  Oglu :  leads  Turkish  marauders, 

154 
Michelson,     Ivan     Ivanovich :      invades 

Moldavia  and  Wallachia,  397 
Midhat   Pasha:    leads    Party   of  Young 

Turkey,  475,  478;  fall  of,  490 
Milan    IV :    becomes    prince    of    Servia, 

465;     declares     war     on     Bulgaria, 

494 

Milosh  Kabilovic:  slays  Murad  at 
Kosovo,  36 

Milosh  Obrenovich:  Servian  patriot, 
410;  expelled  from  Servia,  443;  re- 
called, 465 

Missolonghi:  siege  of   (1826),  417 

Mizirli  Zade  Ibrahim:  made  chief  naval 
commander,  258 

Moggersdorf:  destruction  of  (1664), 
240 

Mohacs :  the  destruction  of,  152 

Mohammed  (I)  Pehlevan,  Sultan  of 
Turkey:  escapes  from  Timur  to 
Amassia,  50;  contests  for  sovereignty 
with  brothers,  52;  reign  of,  54; 
death  of,  57 

Mohammed  (II)  the  Conqueror,  Sultan 
of  Turkey:  reign  of,  71;  death  of, 
87;  his  law  respecting  imperial 
fratricide,    106 

Mohammed  III,  Sultan  of  Turkey: 
reign  of,  204 ;  death  of,  209 

Jklohammed  IV,  Sultan  of  Turkey :  ac- 
cession of,  227;  deposed,  251 

Mohammed,  son  of  Murad :  becomes 
temporary  sovereign,  64,  68 

Mohammed  Ali  (Mehemet  Ali),  Vice- 
roy of  Egypt:  account  of,  408;  his 
campaign  against  the  Greeks,  417; 
aims   at  Turkish   sovereignty,   433 

Mohammed  Ali  Pasha  (Karl  Detroit)  : 
commands  in  Bulgaria,  481 ;  at  Ber- 
lin Congress,  487 


Mohammed    Baltadji,    Grand    Vizier    of 

Turkey :    deposed,   284 
Mohammed    Nedim,    Grand    Vizier    of 

Turkey:     reactionary     ministry     of, 

473 ;   dismissed,  475 
Mohammedan     Law :     sources     of,    89 ; 

civil    equality    under,   97;    improved 

by    Suleiman    the    Great,    184.      See 

also  Government 
Mohammedans :  rise  of,  4 
Moldavia:   revolts  under  Murad  III  of 

Turkey,     204;      seeks     peace     with 

Turkey,    208;    relation    to    Turkey, 

36s 

Moltke,  Count  von :  quoted,  421,  427, 
480 

Money:  coined  by  Othman  (1299),  16; 
change  in  coinage  of,  440 

Mongols :  wrest  territory  from  Turks, 
10;  defeated  by  Ertoghrul  in  at- 
tack on  Alaeddin,  10;  defeated  by 
Orkhan,  17 

Montecuculi,  Count  Raymond  de :  ac- 
count of,  237 

Montenegro :  troubles  in,  448 

Morea :  lost  by  Venice,  286;  in  Peace  of 
Passarowitz,  291 ;  recovered  by 
Turkey,  344 

Morosini,  Francesco,  Venetian  general : 
conquests  in  the  Morea,  251,  256; 
death  of,  285 

Morosini  the  Peloponnesian :  commands 
in  defense  of  Candia,  243 

Morutzi,  Prince :  deposed  as  hospodar, 
396 

Moscow :  burned  by  the  Khan  of  the  Cri- 
mea (1571),  194 

Mount  Thabor:  battle  of   (1/99),  382 

Muhinzadi  Mohammed  Pasha,  Grand 
Vizier     of     Turkey :     account     of, 

334 

Miinnich,  Count  Burkhard  Christoph : 
his  military  genius,  300;  campaigns 
in  the  Crimea,  301,  312 

Murad  (Amurath)  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey: 
reign  of,  29;  death  of,  36;  crosses 
the  Balkan,  62 

Murad  (Amurath)  II,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key :  reign  of,  58 ;  abdicates,  64 ;  re- 
sumes sovereignty,  66;  again  ab- 
dicates and  again  resumes  power, 
68;  death  of,  70 


INDEX 


529 


Murad  (Amurath)  III,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key: reign  of,  201;  death  of,  204 

Murad  (Amurath)  IV,  SuUan  of  Tur- 
key: accession,  214;  reign  of,  215; 
death  of,  223 

Murad  (Amurath)  V,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key: reign  of,  475;  deposed,  478 

Murat,  Joachim :  forces  surrender  at 
Aboukir,  383 

Musa,  son  of  Bayezid :  aids  Moham- 
med in  contest  for  sovereignty,  52; 
death  of,  54 

Musa  Pasha,  Kaimahan  of  Selim  III: 
account  of,  399;  executed,  401 

Mustapha  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  spared 
by  Ahmed  I,  209;  brief  reign  of, 
212;  second  accession  of,  213;  again 
deposed,  214 

Mustapha  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign 
of,  261 ;  abdicates  throne,  273 

Mustapha  III,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign 
of,  318;  death  of,  337 

Mustapha  IV,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign 
of,  400 ;  deposed,  401 ;  death  of, 
402 

Mustapha,  son  of  Bayezid :  claims  sov- 
ereignty, 57;  put  to  death,  58 

Mustapha,  son  of  Suleiman  the  Great: 
account  of,  168 

Mustapha  Bairactar :  revolts  against  the 
Janissaries,  400 

Mustapha  Pasha,  Turkish  admiral : 
commands  expedition  against  Malta, 
170,  171 

Mustapha  Pasha:  his  campaign  against 
Napoleon,  381 ;  surrenders  at  Abou- 
kir, 383 

Muzinzade  Ali,  Capudan  Pasha :  com- 
mands Turkish  forces  at  Lepanto, 
196;  death  of,  198 

Myrtche,  Prince  of  Wallachia :  submits 
to  Bayezid,  ZT\  joins  in  crusade 
against  Turks,  39 


and  Russians,  395 ;  in  Peace  of  Til- 
sit, 403 

Napoleon  III  (Charles  Louis  Napoleon 
Bonaparte),  Emperor  of  tlie  French  : 
account  of,  444;  induces  com- 
promise for  Suez  Canal  construc- 
tion, 469 

Napier,  Sir  Charles:  in  Turko-Egyptian 
war,  437 

Navarino:   battle  of   (1827),  425 

Nesselrode,  Count:  in  Crimean  war, 
450,  451,  453 

Neuhausel:  taken  by  Turks  (1663), 
236 ;  retained  by  treaty,  242 

Nevers,  Count  de :  commands  French 
chivalry  in  crusade,  39;  at  battle  of 
Nicopolis,  40;  taken  captive  by 
Turks,  43 ;  ransomed,  44 

Nezib:  battle  of  (1839),  436 

Nice  (Nicsea)  :  desired  by  the  Turks, 
15,  17 ;  surrenders  to  Orkhan,  23 ; 
sacked  by  Timur,  51 

Nicholas  I,  Emperor  of  Russia :  his  at- 
titude toward  Turkey,  422;  policy 
of,  444 ;  death  of,  458 

Nicholas  II,  Emperor  of  Russia:  acces- 
sion of,  495 

Nicholas,  Grand  Duke :  in  Russo-Turk- 
ish  war   (1870),  479 

Nicomedia:  desired  by  Ottomans,  17; 
captured  by  Orkhan,  23 

Nicopolis:  battle  of  (1392),  ■^j 

Nifisay,  daughter  of  Murad:  marriage 
of.  31 

Nightingale,  Florence :  directs  hospitals 
of  Scutari,  458 

Nile,   Battle  of  the    (1798),  380 

Nish:  sieges  of  (1690),  259;  (1737),  310 

Nissa:  captured  by  the  Turks  (1376), 
30;  Turks  defeated  near  (1443),  62 

Nuouman  Kiuprili,  Grand  Vizier  of 
Turkey:  account  of,  276 


N 

Nadir  Khan :   exploits  of,  293,  295 
Nakkimov,    Admiral :    destroys    Turkish 

ileet,  451 
Napoleon  I    (Bonaparte)  :  his  attack  on 

Egypt,  380;  victories  over  Austrians 


o 


Obresskov,  Russian  minister :  account  of, 

322 
Ochakov:  sieges  of  (1737),  308;   (1788), 

354 
Ochial :    See  Uludj  Ali 
Ofen :  taken  by  Suleiman  the  Great,  15;. 


530 


INDEX 


Omar  Pasha:  services  of,  439;  opens 
hostilities  of  the  Crimean  war,  451; 
wins  battle  of  Eupatoria,  458 

Oran:  capture  of,  165 

Orkhan,  Emir  of  the  Ottomans:  reign 
of,  17,  ig;  death  of,  28 

Orkhan,  son  of  Bayezid:  account  of,  72 

Orlov,  Count  Alexis :  commands  Rus- 
sian expedition,  326 

Orsovo:  sieges  of  (1396),  40;  (i739), 
314;  captured  by  Austrians    (1790), 

357 

Osman  Pasha:  commands  at  Widdin, 
481 

Othman  (Osman)  I,  Emir  of  the  Otto- 
mans :  founder  of  Ottoman  Empire, 
9,  12;  dream  of,  interpreted,  14; 
despotic  character  of,  16 

Othman  (Osman)  II,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key: reign  of,  212 

Othman  (Osman)  III,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key: reign  of,  318 

Otranto:  fall  of  (1480),  86 

Ottoman  Turks :  coming  of,  5 

P,  Q 

Paget,  Lord :  English  ambassador,  266 

Palfeologus,  John :  aided  by  Orkhan,  25 ; 
at  war  with  Cantacuzene,  26;  his 
fear  of  the  Ottomans,  31 

Palseologus,  Manuel,  Greek  emperor: 
account  of,  53,  54 

Papal  Schism,  The,  33 

Paris,  Treaty  of  (1856)  :  account  of  460, 
470;  abrogated  by  Russia,  473 

Parthenon,  Destruction  of  the,  256    note 

Paskievitch,  Count:  in  Russo-Turkish 
war,  426,  428,  453 

Passarowitz,  Peace  of  (1718)  :  account 
of,  6,  290,  374 

Pasvan  Oglu :  rebellion  of,  386;  joined 
by  Janissaries,  387;  joins  Moham- 
medan   brigand    league,    388 

Patron  Khalil :  leader  of  Janissary  re- 
bellion, 295 

Pechenegs :  invasion  of,  4 

Pcrekop:  taken  by  Russia  (1736),  304; 
siege  of  (1770),  330 

Pcrgamus:    See  Bcrghama 

I'ersia :  reduced  by  Arabs,  4 ;  Shiite 
tenets  in,  122;  at  war  with  Turkey, 


123,  164,  204,  209,  221,  316;  hostility 
to  Turkey,  211;  peace  with  Turkey, 
212,  223 

Peter  (I)  the  Great,  Emperor  of  Russia: 
account  of,  265 ;  his  relations  with 
Turkey,  273;  establishes  efficient 
standing  army,  378 

Peterwaradin :  taken  from  the  Turks 
(1688),  25s;  threatened  by  the 
Turks,  263,  287 

Philippopolis :  taken  by  Murad  (1361), 
29;  battle  of  (1877),  486 

Piali,  Turkish  admiral :  account  of,  165, 
170,  199 

Piri  Reis :  Turkish  admiral,  164 

Pitt,  William,  first  Earl  of  Chatham : 
projects  alliance  against  the  Bour- 
bons, 322 ;  policy  toward  Russia,  360, 
361 

Pius  V,  Pope :  forms  maritime  league, 
196 

Plcstcheev,  Michael :  first  Russian  am- 
bassador to  Turkey,  118 

Plevna:  siege  of  (1877),  482 

Poland :  invaded  by  Tartars,  4 ;  hostility 
to  Turkey,  32,  211;  Othman's  cam- 
paign in,  212 ;  trouble  over  the  Cos- 
sacks, 244;  treaty  with  Turkey,  269; 
in  Peace  of  the  Pruth,  281 ;  plans  to 
dismember,  332,  3^3 1  hrst  partition 
of   (1773)-  338 

Porte,  The :   meaning  of  term,  91 

Portuguese :  discoveries  and  conquests 
of,   144 

Potemkin,  Prince :  account  of,  346,  353, 
358;  deceptions  of,  350  note;  death 
of,  360 

Pravadi :   surrender  of    (1389),  34 

Presburg,  Treaty  of   (1805),  395 

Prevesa:  battle  of  (1538),  163 

Printing  Press :  set  up  at  Constantino- 
ple, 293 

Prussia:  growth  of,  318;' joins  with  Rus- 
sia, 320,  322;  joins  triple  alliance 
(1788),  360;  in  Holy  Alliance,  411; 
in    agreement    of    the    Dardanelles, 

437 
Pruth,  Peace  of  the   (1711),  280 
Pugatchcv's  Rebellion :   account  of,  338, 

344 
PuUava:  battle  of  (1709),  275 
Pyramids,  Battle  of  the  (1798),  380 


INDEX 


531 


Raco:  taken  by  Sigismund,  40 

Raghib  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey: 
account  of,  318 

Raglan,  Lord :  in  Crimean  war,  452 ; 
death  of,  459 

Rayas :  massacre  of,  389 

Reichenbach,  Congress  of  (1790),  360 

Reis  Effendi,  The :  powers  of,  369 

Renaissance,  The,  144 

Reshid  Pasha,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey ; 
in  Russo-Turkish  war,  429;  quells 
insurrections,  433 ;  services  of,  439, 
442 

Rhigas :  national  poet  of  Greece,  413 

Rhodes,  Island  of:  siege  of  (1480),  85; 
campaign  of  Suleiman  against,  136, 
148 

Richard  II,  King  of  England,  contempo- 
rary of  Murad  I  of  Turkey,  33 

Ridania:  battle  of   (1517),   130 

Rimnik  River:  battle  of   (1789),  356 

Riza :  ministry  of,  442 

Roe,    Sir    Thomas :    quoted,   213,    214 

Roussin,  Admiral :  sent  by  France  to  aid 
Mahmud  II  of  Turkey,  434 

Rumelia :  occupied  by  Turks,  32 

Rumiantsov,  General  Count  Peter  Alex- 
andrevitch :  commands  Russian 
forces,  324,  325 ;  crosses  the  Danube, 

334 
Rustchuk :  assault  on  (1810),  406 
Russia :  reduced  by  Tartars,  4 ;  assumes 
importance  in  the  Eastern  Question, 
7;  under  ^Mongol  subjection,  32,  46; 
appears  in  Turkish  history,  117; 
rise  of,  192;  decline  of,  211;  de- 
velopment of  hostility  to  Turkey, 
244,  247 ;  armistice  with  Turkey, 
269;  effects  thirty  years'  peace  with 
Turkey,  274;  army  of,  disciplined  by 
Miinnich,  308;  Servia  appeals  to, 
392;  rivalry  with  France,  392;  in 
Peace  of  Tilsit,  404;  aids  France 
against  Austria,  406;  in  Holy  Alli- 
ance, 411;  her  attitude  toward  Tur- 
key, 421;  joins  intervention  of  Eu- 
ropean powers  for  Greece,  423 ;  aids 
Mahmud  II  against  Mohammed 
Ali,  434 ;  in  agreement  of  the  Dar- 
danelles, 437;   allies  against  l-'rance, 


380;  cooperates  with  Turkey  against 
France,  384.  See  also  Peter  the 
Great 


Safiye,  Venetian  favorite  of  Murad  III 
of  Turkey:  influence  of,  201,  204, 
205,  208 

Sagrse:  taken  by  Murad,  29 

Saguta  (Saegud)  :  possessed  by  Erto- 
ghrul,  10 

Salankeman :   battle  of    (1691),   260 

Salisbury,  Lord :  his  view  of  the  Treaty 
of  San  Stefano,  487;  on  the  Ar- 
menian massacres,  500 

Salm,  Count :  at  siege  of  Vienna,  155 ; 
death  of,  156 

Samarkand :  chosen  capital  by  Timur, 
46 

Samsoun :  annexed  by  Bayezid,  38 

Saudi,  Don  Alvaro  de :  captured  by 
Turks,  166 

San  Stefano,  Treatv  of  (1878)  :  account 
of,  486 

Scanderbeg  (Tskanderbeg.  Lord  Alex- 
ander or  George  Castriot)  :  his  suc- 
cesses against  Turks,  60,  69,  82; 
death  of,  85 

Schuyler,  American  consul  general :  in- 
vestigates Bulgarian  troubles,  477 

Seadeddin :  Oriental  historian,  30,  35 
note;  quoted,  37;  influence  on  Mo- 
hammed III  of  Turkey,  205,  206,  207 

Sebastiani,  General :  ambassador  to 
Turkey,  396,  398 

Sebastopol :  Russian  port  founded  by 
Catherine,    350;     siege    of     (1854), 

.  455 

Seid  Bokhari :  leads  Turkish  assault,  59 

Sclim  I,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  intrigues  for 
sovereignty,  115;  accession  of,  117; 
reign  of,  119;  death  of,  137;  com- 
pared to  Suleiman  I  of  Turkey,  146 

Selim  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  intrigue  to 
secure  succession  of,  168;  accession 
of,  178;  reign  of,  191;  death  of,  200 

Selim  III,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign  of, 
355 ;  forced  abdication  of,  400 ; 
death  of,  401 ;  his  encouragement  of 
education,   412 


533 


INDEX 


Selim  Ghirai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea 
(XVII  Century)  :  flight  before  _So- 
bieski,  250;  aids  Kiuprili  against 
Austrians,  258,  259 

Selim  Ghirai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea 
(XVIII  Century)  :   account  of,  330 

Seljuks:  overrun  Asia  Minor,  4;  estab- 
lish empire,   10 

Servia:  leads  Slav  revolt,  32;  indepen- 
dent from  7\irkey,  63;  reconquered 
by  Turks,  68;  made  Turkish  prov- 
ince, 82;  troubles  in,  386;  recon- 
quered by  Turks,  410;  in  Treaty  of 
Adrianople,  432 

Seven  Years'  War,  The,  318 

Seymour,  Sir  Hamilton :  his  interview 
with  Nicholas  I  of  Russia,  447 

Shahin  Ghirai,  Khan  of  the  Crimea :  ac- 
count of,  331,  345 

Shehaddedin  Pasha :  account  of,  61 

Sheremetiev,  Count:  at  battle  of  the 
Pruth,  279;  becomes  hostage  to 
Turkey,  282 

Shiahs  or  Shiites :  aid  Korkud  and  Ah- 
med, 115;  their  schism  with  the 
Sunnitcs,  122 

Shipka  Pass:  battle  of  (1877),  481 

Shumla :  surrenders  to  the  Turks 
(1389))  34;  Russians  repulsed  at, 
427;  surrenders  to  the  Russians 
(1829),  430 

Sliuvalov,    Count:    at    Berlin    Congress, 

.  .487. 
Sidi  Ali :  Turkish  admiral,  164 
Sigismund,    King    of    Hungary :    makes 

war  on  the  Turks,  37,  38 
Silistria:  Russian  defeat  at  (1773),  334; 

taken  by  Russians  (1810),  406;  siege 
_of_  (1854),  453 
Siniavin,    Admiral :    gains    victory    over 

Turkish  fleet,  398 
Sinope:    taken    by    Cossacks,    211;    de- 
struction of   (1853),  451 
Sistova,  Treaty  of    (1791)  :   account  of, 

357,  386 
Sisvan,   King   of   Bulgaria :    account   of, 

30,  34 
Sitvatorok,   Treaty   of    (1606)  :    account 

of  208,  210,  374 
Sivas     (ancient    Sebaste)  :    annexed    by 

Bayezid,  38;   assailed  by  Tinmr,  47 
Skobelev,     iNIikhail :     in    Russo-Turkish 

war,  482 


Slavery  among  the  Turks,  100 

Slivinitza:  battle  of   (1885),  494 

Slobosia,  Truce  of  (1807)  :  account  of, 
398,  400,  403 

Smith,  Sir  Sidney:  in  Franco-Turkish 
war,  382,  383,  384 

Smyrna:  sacked  by  Timur  (1402),  51; 
taken  by  Mohammed  I  of  Turkey, 
55  , 

Sobieski,  John :  see  John  (III)  Sobieski 

Sokolli,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey:  ac- 
count of,  176;  death  of,  201 

Spain :  reduced  by  the  Arabs,  4 ;  strug- 
gle of  Christians  and  Moors  in,  32; 
union  of  kingdoms  of,  143;  discov- 
eries and  conquests  of,  144 

St.  Armand,  Marshal :  in  Crimean  war, 
452 

St.  Elmo:  fall  of  (1565),  173 

St.  Gothard:  battle  of  (1664),  238,  241 

St.  Jean  d'  Acre:  siege  of  (1799),  381 

St.  John,  Knights  of:  in  crusade  against 
Turks,  39;  receive  Prince  Djem, 
109;  defend  Malta,  170 

St.  Sophia,  Church  of:  Constantine  re- 
ceives sacrament  in,  78;  converted 
to  mosque  by  the  Turks,  80 

Stafford,  Admiral :  in  Turko-Egyptian 
war,  437 

Stahremberg,  Count:  in  second  siege  of 
Vienna,  248 

Stambulov,  Stephen :  ministry  of,  495 

Stanislaus  II,  Augustus  (Poniatowski), 
King  of  Poland:  accession  of,  321 

Stap  1,  Richard :  English  merchant 
sent  to  Constantinople,  202 

Stephen  (I)  Dusan,  Czar  of  Servia:  ac- 
count of,  32 

Stephen  Laserovic,  King  of  Servia : 
yields  as  vassal  to  Turkey,  27 ;  in 
liattle  of  Nicopolis,  42;  at  battle  of 
Angora,  50;  death  of,  60 

Stratford  dc  Redcliffe:  See  Canning, 
Stratford 

Suez.  Isthmus  of:  Sokolli  projects  canal 
through,  19s;  canal  constructed,  467, 
496 

Suleiman  (I)  the  Great,  Sultan  of  Tur- 
key: power  of,  s,  loi ;  his  sov- 
ereignty contested,  120;  reign  of, 
143;  death  of,  176;  extent  of  em- 
pire of,  179;  estimate  of,  189 


INDEX 


533 


Suleiman  II,  Sultan  of  Turkey:  reign 
of,  255;   death  of,  260 

Suleiman  Pasha,  son  of  Orkhan:  ac- 
count of,  25,  27 

Suleiman  Pasha,  Turkish  general :  ac- 
count of,  481 

Suleimaniye,  The :  account  of,   167,   179 

Sultan,  Power  of  the,  88 

Sultan-CEni :  origin  of  name,  11;  de- 
scription of,  12 

Sunna,  The.  89 

Sunnites :  their  schism  with  the  Shiites, 
122 

Suvarov,  Count  Alexander :  commands 
Russian  force,  324 ;  defeats  Turk- 
ish forces,  338;  quells  Tartar  ris- 
ing) 345;  defends  Kilburn,  351;  at 
siege  of  Ochakov,  354;  sent  into 
Moldavia,  356;  captures  Ismail,  359 

Sweden :  intervention  of,  307 ;  allied 
with  Russia,  322;  at  war  with  Tur- 
key, 352;  treaty  with  Catherine  II 
of  Russia,  357 

Syria :  reduced  by  the  Arabs,  4 ;  wasted 
by  Timur,  48;  conquered  by  Selim  I 
of  Turkey,  136;  massacres  in,  465 

Szegedin,  Treaty  of :  account  of,  63,  65 

Sziget:  siege  of   (1566),  175 


Tagliamento :    crossed   by   Omar    Pasha, 

85 

Tamerlane  the  Great:  See  Timur  the 
Tartar 

Tartar  Invasion,  The,  4 

Taxation:  under  Suleiman  the  Great, 
184,  186,  187;  under  Ibrahim,  227; 
increased  by  Mustapha,  262;  im- 
posed by  Husein  Kiuprili,  265 ; 
under  Ahmed  III  of  Turkey,  293; 
military  exemption  tax  of  Chistians, 
440 ;  reforms  in,  442 ;  under  Abdul 
llamid,  491 

Tcliekmedji,  Bridge  of,   188 

Tchesme:    Turkish    fleet    destroyed    at, 

327 
Tekeli,  Count:  rebellion  of,  269 
Tel-el-Kebir:   battle   of    (1882),  497 
Tenu'svar :    siege  of    (1716),   289 
Tewfik,    Viceroy    of     Egypt :     succeeds 

Ismail  Pasha,  496 


Theodora,     daughter    of     Cantacuzene : 

married  to  Orkhan,  25 
Thessalonica :    captured   by  Turks,  60 
Thessaly  ceded  to  Greece,  492 
Thrace :  occupied  by  Turks,  32 
Thracian    Chersonese:    Ottomans    settle 

in,  27 
Thugut,  Baron  Franz  Maria  von :  inter- 
views   the    Reis    Effendi,    332;    in- 
terprets Treaty  of  Kainardji,  341 
Three  Emperors,  League  of  the,  474 
Tiflis,     Czar     of:      See     Heraclius     of 

Georgia 
Tilsit,  Peace  of  (1807),  403 
Timur   the    Tartar    (Timur-Leng,    i.    c, 
Timur  the  Lame,  hence  Tamerlane 
or    Tamberlaine)  :     account    of,    5, 
46;  death  of,  51 
Tirnova:  surrender  of   (1389),  34 
Tobacco:  introduced  into  Turkey,  212 
Toghrul  Beg:  Seljukian  Turks  powerful 

under,   10 
Topal  Osman,  Grand  Vizier  of  Turkey: 

account  of,  295 ;  death  of,  298 
Torghud :   See  Dragut 
Touroon  Shah :  last  of  Eyneb  dynasty  in 

Egypt,   128 
Tours:  battle  of    (732  A.  d.),  4 
Transylvania :  acquired  by  Suleiman  the 
Great,    159;    revolt    of,    203;    seeks 
peace  with  Turkey,  208 
Tripolitza:  battle  of  (1770),  327 
Tschendereli,  Kara  Khalil :  his  plan  for 

organizing  the  Janissaries,  20 
Tshuli    Ali,    Grand    Vizier    of    Turkey: 

account  of,  275 
Tuman  Beg,  Sultan  of  Egypt:  succeeds 
Kansu,  130;  his  capture  and  death, 

133 

Tunis:  captured  by  Barliarossa,  162; 
taken  and  plundered  by  Christians, 
163 ;  retaken  by  Turks,  200 

Turkey:  the  Eastern  Question,  3;  the 
rise  of  the  Ottomans,  9;  the  Otto- 
mans enter  Europe,  19;  conquests  in 
Europe  and  Asia,  29;  the  struggle 
for  the  Balkan,  52;  Mohammed  II 
and  the  conquest  of  Constantinople, 
71 ;  political  institutions  and  gov- 
ernment under  Mohammed  IT,  88; 
Bayezid  II  and  Prince  Djem,  107; 
Selim   I  and  the  conquest  of  Egypt 


684i 


INDEX 


and  Syria,  119;  first  years  of  the 
epoch  of  Suleiman  the  Great,  143; 
last  years  of  the  epoch  of  Suleiman 
the  Great,  158;  Selim  II  and  the 
beginnings  of  decline,  191;  decay  of 
the  empire,  201 ;  revival  of  the  em- 
pire under  Murad  IV,  215;  the  age 
of  the  great  viziers,  225;  Kara 
Mustapha  and  the  siege  of  Vienna, 
247 ;  the  war  of  the  Holy  Alliance, 
255 ;  Peter  the  Great  and  Turkey, 
273;  Mahmud  I  and  wars  with  Rus- 
sia, Austria  and  Persia,  295 ;  Cather- 
ine II  of  Russia  and  loss  of  the 
Crimea,  320;  renewal  of  the  struggle 
with  Russia,  342;  the  Ottoman  em- 
pire in  the  eighteenth  century,  364; 
Turkey  in  the  age  of  revolution, 
377;  Mahmud  II  and  the  birth  of 
modern  Turkey,  408;  Abdul  Medjid 
and  the  Crimean  war,  439;  Sultan 
Abdul  Aziz  and  Turkish  efforts  at 
reform,  462;  Abdul  Hamid  and  the 
empire  to-day,  489 
Turkestan:  reduced  by  Arabs,  4 
Tzympe,  Castle  of:  taken  by  Suleiman 
Pasha,  26 


U,  V 

Ulema,  The:  account  of,  98,  369 

Ulude  AH :  at  siege  of  Malta,  172 

Unkiar  Iskelessi,  Treaty  of  (1833)  : 
signed,  435 ;  Russia's  attitude  to- 
ward, 443 

Urban  V,  Pope :  preaches  crusade 
against  the  Turks,  30 

Vallette,  John  de  la :  see  La  Vallette, 
John  de. 

Varna:  siege  of,  (1444),  65;  Russians 
repulsed  at  (1773),  336;  siege  of 
(1828),  427 

Vasili  (III)  Ivanovitch :  contemporary 
of  Suleiman  the  Great,  145 ;  frees 
Moscow  from  Tartars,  192 

Vasog.  battle  of  (1442),  61 

Venice,  Republic  of;  at  war  with  Genoa, 
25 ;  makes  treaty  with  Mohammed 
I  of  Turkey,  54;  at  war  with  the 
Turks,  56,  60,  84,  113;  Selim  II 
breaks    treaty    with,    195 ;    peace    of 


1573  negotiated,  199;  decline  of, 
211;  treaty  with  Turkey,  269;  weak- 
ness of,  285;  cedes  the  Morea  to 
Turkey,  291 

Vienna:  sieges  of  (1276),  6;  (1529), 
152;   (1683),  248 

Vienna,  Congress  of:  Turkey  excluded 
from,  410 

"  Vienna  Note,  The,"  450 

Villiers  De  Lisle  Adam,  Philippe  de : 
surrenders  to  Suleiman,  148 

Volney,  Count:  his  prediction  for  Tur- 
key, 373 

W,  X,  Y,  Z 

Waddington,  William  Henry:  at  Berlin 

Congress,  487 
Wahab,   Abdul :   founds   Wahabite   sect, 

317 

Wahabite  Sect:  rise  of,  317;  ascen- 
dency in  Arabia,  365,  385  ;  conquered 
by  Mohammed  Ali,  408 

Wallachia:  menaced  by  Murad,  30; 
submits  to  Bayezid,  37 ;  given  to 
Hungary,  63;  revolts  under  Murad 
HI  of  Turkey,  204;  seeks  peace,  208; 
relation  to  Turkey,  365 

Wenceslaus,  Emperor  of  Germany;  ac- 
count of,  32 

Widdin :  surrenders  to  Sigismund,  40 

William  II,  Emperor  of  Germany:  his 
policy  in  the  Eastern  Question,  508 

Yacoub,  son  of  Murad :   account  of,  36 

Yakshibey:  lieutenant  of  Ali   Pasha,  34 

Yegen  Mohammed  Pasha,  Grand  Vizer 
of  Turkey:  account  of,  311 

Yeni  Tscheri :  see  Janissaries 

Yoglan  Beg:  defends  Nicopolis,  40 

Ypsilanti:    see    Ipsilanti 

Yusuf,  Grand  Vizer  of  Turkey:  jealousy 
of  Gazi  Hassan,  351 

Yussuf  Pasha :  treachery  of,  427 

Zapolya,  John,  King  of  Hungary:  seeks 
aid  from  Turkey,  152;  death  of,  159 

Zapolya,  Sigismund,  King  of  Hungary: 
receives  Suleiman  the  Great,   175 

Zeitoun    (Lysimachia)  :    surrendered,   60 

Zenta:  battle  of  (1697),  263 

Zriny,  Count,  Governor  of  Szizet :  re- 
sists  Suleiman's  invasion,   175 

Zurawna,   Peace  of    (1676),  246 


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